Looking for background, why is the E90-1 Jake Stahl card more rare than others?
 

We got some good new today from SGC - this very nice E90-1 Jake Stahl got a solid 2.5 grade… hoped for a bit better, like we always do.

I’m reading about the relative scarcity of this card vs other in the set and am hoping some advanced collectors of this set and card might be able to shed some light on this one -

I’m curious why there are so few graded Stahl cards from this set. Production issue? Card pulled for some reason?

Thx for sharing any background on this card.

Jeff

Ted Z. had a 30 card E90-1 sheet theory, and he believed that Stahl would have been in the last, less distributed sheet that was issued at the end of the E90-1 production run. Here is a thread that he created that discussed this theory:


https://www.net54baseball.com/showth...-1+set+respect


I haven't heard any other alternative to this theory, so...


Brian

Wow, that thread is a really interesting read… thx for sharing, Brian. I am forever amazed at the depth of knowledge members here have about this hobby.

Ted Z. was an icon here. Incredible the research he spearheaded.
RayB

I've been collecting this set for 25 years, and this is the best one I have ever seen. Some of these short prints are brutal to find above VG condition.

E90-1 Scarcity
 

Without going into too much minutiea, the scratch patterns on the back of E90-1s indicate a larger sheet than 30 cards (much as I appreciated Ted Z's great wisdom).

The scratches indicate that cards were swapped out in different positions over time. The significant scarcities, like Stahl and Shean, Young Cleveland and Duffy, and Wagner Throwing and Speaker, were most likely part of the last printed sheet layout and therefore effectively "short printed." Moreover, some cards - like Demmitt and Mathewson - may have appeared in several locations on the early sheets making them somewhat more common.

I believe there were at least 3 and likely 4 different sheet layouts used over time, based on the fact that for some scratch patterns, you can find 4 different cards with the identical back.

Many of the cards with solid red backgrounds seem to have been shorted as part of the last/least printed group. Bemis , Clarke (Pitt), Dougherty, Duffy, Keeler (throwing) and Stahl are well known, but I think Donlin, Leach (batting) Richie, Sheckard and Tenney deserve to be in that discussion as well.

Man, what a beautiful card...

Boy do I miss him.

Maybe Net54 should have its own Hall of Fame? (not actually joking) How cool would it be for active member "HOFers" to have a special badge to note their status here?

Am guessing this has been considered before?

Jeff

I think it’s been discussed a few times. A lot of people worried that marginal performers who piled up a lot of counting stats would get in.

And I think Leon was less than enthusiastic about the concept.

Maybe a diamond sticker?

Those with impressive counting stats posts could be awarded the Harold Baines Punching the Clock Badge of Excellence.

Brian

This is really interesting! I think the Pastorius could be considered here as well-- it's the lowest pop of the Brooklyn cards in the set...