Posted By:
scott brockelmanit appears that several people have been reading this thread and posts' with interest. i am an E107 collector that has owned over 300 E107's and followed them extensivly. there are 6 collectors pursuing the set, DOES THAT SAY ENOUGH ABOUT RARITY! , and we have a couple of newbies as well.
NO ONE HAS EVER COMPLETED THE E107 SET, no oldtimers, such as Nagy, Burdick, MacPherson, or others, a few came close, but none completed it, compare that to even RARE sets such as T204, to date over 20-30 have completed that.
in modern times we have 1 key collector within 1 card of completing the type 1's. another that needs less than 10, 2 which need 15-20 and a couple others that need 20-30. these numbers are a bit vague for indendity purposes.
the recent explosion in prices may or may not hold true forever, however the rarity is concrete. most of the E107's in the above sets are not gems, in fact they would grade vg+/- on most collector scales, but are much cherished by their owners as they represent a time and era unduplicated on any other card issue, save the W600's. in response to one post, when a card comes up for sale or auction we need, we pay whatever it takes to get it, as another may not come up for years!
i do not feel that recent sales will hurt the prices of the cards as the number of available copies is very finite. is there an end to madness? no probably not, what we consider high prices, rare coin, antiquity and art dealers would scoff at. in our world 5 figures is extreme, in theirs 6-7 figures is the norm. in reply to some that the price may outpace the buyers ability, the absolute opposite is true, rarity and price draw in the well healed and drive the market even higher. on this board we now have collectors that are quite knowledgable of cards and baseball history driving the market, they are not just investors but historians and keepers of the past.
i may try to post some E107 scans later to satisfy that pictoral thirst.
scott