[brianp-beme]

Nice compilation Scott...here are a few thoughts.

I do not think the Joe Jackson card has ever been considered rare. Extremely popular, yes, especially the last twenty years, and thus expensive. But not a difficult card compared to other E90-1's. Check out Lew Lipset's Encyclopedia...he does not include it in his lists of difficult to extremely rare cards.

I also would like to make a point about the 'graded' rarity of most of the common players at the top of your lists (which is appreciated, by the way). It has only been in the past two or three years that the Leach-throwing, Dougherty, Bescher, Stone-left hand, and Howell-wind up have had more than a nominal added value in the SCD Guide. All of these cards were basically listed as commons in the 2009 guide. By 2011 their prices had been elevated (except for Stone-left hand).

I always like to think of all the sets, near-sets and larger groupings of E90-1 auction lots over the years...quite often some of the 'better' cards of these raw collections (usually the big name hall of famers and the traditional 'rarities' of the set) were the ones that were sent out for grading. I think you have honed in on some of the scarcities of this set, but I also think some of the real low populations on some of the commons has been the result of these cards not being perceived as particularly rare until very recently. In other words, I think these are scarce cards, but more are likely out there ungraded to narrow the gap at the top of your scarcity charts.

In another line of reasoning, I believe that your list really exposes the HOF rarities of the set, as these are cards most likely to have been graded over time. I knew about the difficulty of the Speaker card, as well as the Duffy, but the Wagner Throwing comes as a little bit of a surprise as to how scarce it is, as Wagner cards are about as likely to have been graded as any in the set.

Once again, an interesting read. And by the way, my Miller fielding has no smog induced sunset. I think the sunset version should be noted in the guides and by the TPG's as a legitimate variation, especially since it is an 'added' color (not a missing color) variation from the commonly seen card.

Brian