[rats60]

Originally Posted by the 'stache

Hi Jim,

If all the cards were available to me at the same condition level, say a strong PSA 5, well centered with nice, white borders, deep, rich colors, no tobacco staining, I'd probably go with these ten:

Honus Wagner, portrait
Eddie Plank, portrait
Sherry Magee, portrait (Magie misspelling)
Joe Doyle, pitching, (N.Y. Nat'l)
Ray Demmitt, St. Louis Amer.
Bill O'Hara, St. Louis
Ty Cobb, portrait (green background)
Ty Cobb, portrait (red background)
Ty Cobb, bat on shoulder
Ty Cobb, bat off shoulder

The first six are "the big six". Originally, there were four super cards, the Wagner, Plank, Magee misspelling and the Joe Doyle New York variant. The Demitt and O'Hara were later added. From the other cards in the set, the four Cobbs are probably the safest bet. Many think he's the greatest player to ever play the game. In this condition, the Cobbs would go for a bundle, and their upside is pretty much unlimited.

If you didn't want four Cobbs, I'd take the Cobb with the green background, or the bat off shoulder. The other three cards, then, I'd take the Cy Young portrait, the Napolean Lajoie portrait, the Christy Mathewson dark cap, and the Walter Johnson portrait.

This is a great post. I would say the "green" Cobb is the one to get. Also, you named 4 instead of 3. I would say Young, Johnson and Mathewson are the 3 others to get. I'd have a slightly different list. I would exclude the big 4 as those are probably out of most people's price range. My list would be

O'Hara St. L.
Demmitt St. L.
Elberfeld portrait
Cobb green background
Johnson portrait
Young portrait
Mathewson portrait
Speaker
Lajoie portrait
Eddie Collins

That gives you the 3 rare but realistic to find cards and the 7 main HOFers from the set.