It's funny because if you had asked this question 20 years ago it probably would have been a vehement 1930's-40's as the answer. Today it is the 1900-1920's that seems to be the most active era. It helps that that this era seems to have the most types, variety, etc. for the "type" collector. For years the Caramel cards were the red-headed-stepchild of the T206 and more mainstream sets.
On the non-sports side it is without a doubt that the 1930's to 1960's are king (The "R-card" or "Gum Card" era). The T-cards/E-cards are only somewhat collected, while the N-card era is collected a bit more ravenously than the T/E era.
I expect that in 20 years we could have an even different answer.
-Rhett
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