Posted By:
Andrew ParksI completed the E102 set and had 50% of the T205 set finished at one time. My theory on the difficult variations in those sets are because of unfavorable poses. I think the cards were printed, people looked at them, and said, "That's an awful shot of [so and so]..." and then new cards were printed. For example, the four tough cards - variations - in the E102 set are:
Wagner Throwing, Doyle with Bat, Schmidt, and Miller Fielding
These four cards are not near as nice looking as their counterparts:
Wagner batting, Doyle throwing, Smith, and Miller Batting
Now let's look at the T205 cards:
Collins mouth open (one of the all-time worst pictures ever), Bresnahan mouth open, Wilkes one ear, Harmon one ear, Chase one ear and so on...are awful pictures of the player, as well...
The second card made of these players are much nicer looking. I don't believe this explains ALL difficult cards in sets, but that's my theory on some of the rare cards in the E102 and T205 sets.
I could be way off...but I wonder what others think...or KNOW!