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Rhett YeakleyTodd, There was a timeline from 1920 to 1922 when the producers of the E121-like cards were printing the cards for the various brands. The E121 Series of 80 set is from the middle of that time frame, not a really early run, so there are several players produced prior to that set that are tough to find with any of the backs.
The earliest of the E121 card sets to be produced was the Holsum Bread Type 1 set (the ones with the "H" in H. Weil all the way to the left on back). This is obvious by the inclusion of the Black Sox players and many Chicago players are found with "Cubs" and "White Sox" on front as opposed to Chicago Americans/Nationals as in all later sets.
The next round of sets to be produced are made up of Standard Biscuit, Herpolsheimers, Holsum (Type 2-indented "H") and the W575-1 cards. Actually W575-1's (with high quality photos and paper) were produced from this time to the end of the production run.
The next grouping (time-wise) is the largest grouping and would include the E121 Series of 80 along with the bulk of the rest of the producers (Haffners, Gasslers, Clarks, etc. etc.).
The last grouping is headlined by the E121 Series of 120 cards, this group had some major changes on the obverse. Positions were simplified (all OF became O.F. as opposed to R.F., etc. and the infield positions became 1B, 2B., etc.). Also in this group are W501, W575-1 (low quality photos-better called W501-Type 2's), and Lou Gertenrich's.
John Henry, Dave Davenport, Ray Morgan, and Carl Weilman (amongst other examples) were all done with their careers by 1921 and were dropped from later production runs. None of these guys made it to the E121 Series of 80 set and are thus "difficult" players to find.
I have an article on these sets that I have been working onm, and I hope to get it published at some point. I am also working on a "super set" spreadsheet with only cards that I have personally seen or can prove to exist.
-Rhett