The Great T200 debate - calling all t200 set collectors

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Posted By: Joe D.

In my opinion - based on my own collecting experience, and based on opinions I have received from other T200 set collectors (and going by the pop reports)...

The Boston Nationals is the toughest in the set.
The NY Americans is a close second - but not quite as tough (I have heard some arguments to the contrary - so an argument can be made).

The next two toughest are the two St. Louis cards.
The rest of the set is fairly easy to come by.


In response to this - BobC mentioned:
about the NY Americans:.... "I have one in a SGC 50. IMHO it is equally if not more difficult than your Boston Nationals. Also I do not seem to see many Chicago Cubs in nicer condition. Your take on that?"




So there you have it. Both cards might be neck and neck as far as difficulty goes. But, it is a set worthy of discussion - and I stand by my assertion - so I figured I would start the thread.


Bob also brings up the great point of card condition (particularly of the Cubs).

To me - they all seem tough to find in nice condition - I have not noticed the Cubs as being special in that regard.

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Posted By: Anthony N

Boston NL is by far the toughest. St Louis AL lags considerably behind, followed closely by NY AL and then St. Louis NL.
There is a mid tier of scarcity which includes Detroit and a few others, and then a group of easy ones- Phil AL, Cincinnati, etc
Chicago NL is in the mid tier IMO, due in part to a lot of demand for the Cubs. There was a decent SGC 4 that went on ebay last weekend, and they come up a few times a year. I've seen 3 Boston NL's in 5 years of aggressively pursuing this set- the one I have that graded PSA 4, Joe's SGC 4, and one super beater raw one.

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Posted By: Rob

anyone have any info as to WHY the boston NL is so scarce? less produced, or just people didn't care for the team so they'd get discarded?

Rob

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Posted By: Jason L

I have found that the hardest ones to get are ones that JoeD no longer has available to sell to me!
Sorry.
couldn't help it.

Anthony, thanks for the info, and keeping the integrity of this thread at a much higher level than my contributions ever could!

I'm a little giddy...I'll show you why as soon as I can (in the New pickups thread)!

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Posted By: Joe D.

Knowing that you have tremendous experience with the set, I was hopeful you would add your input to this thread.


You have NY Americans ranked #3?

I have to give some new found respect for St. Louis Americans then. I always considered it a toughie (one of the big 4 in the set) - but I did not realize the card might be ahead of the NY Americans card in terms of toughness. I will keep an eye out.


Rob: My theory on Boston NL (and one that I have heard from others) - the scarcity is because they were a terrible team. I would bet both production and retention of that team would have been lower than the others.


edit: for grammar (probably still riddled with errors)

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Posted By: ockday

Finding these cards in nice condition is tough across the board, but for me and putting my set together it's the NY Americans that's definitely been the toughest card in the set.
After that comes the St Louis Americans and then the Boston Nationals.
Now I know that there are many unslabbed cards but to get an indication, if you look at PSA and SGC's pop reports of t200's in grades of PSA 5 (PSA 3 and 4 lumped together so I left them out) or SGC 50 and higher you will find the following..

NY Americans SGC 50-2, SGC 60-2 PSA 5-2, PSA 6-1 Total = 7 cards
St Louis Americans SGC 50-3, PSA 5-1, SGC 70-1 Total = 5 cards
St Louis Nationals SGC 50- 4, SGC 60-1, PSA 5-1, PSA 6-2 Total = 8 cards
Boston Nationals SGC 50- 5 No PSA Total = 5 cards
Chicago Nationals SGC 50-8, SGC 60-1 PSA 5-2, PSA 6-1 Total 12 cards

I guess bottom line is that we're splitting hairs and they are all pretty tough to get in decent shape.
Alan

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Posted By: Bruce Babcock

I would agree with what has been said above. Boston NL was the toughest and last card for me. I completed my set in 2000 and certainly none of these cards have gotten any easier. NY AL was the most expensive for me. My set is not graded but all are in pretty darn nice shape for the issue. It's a great set to collect and represents a unique way of collecting the players, including the stars, of the tobacco era without breaking the bank.

My set can be viewed here if interested:

http://imageevent.com/uffda51/1913t200fatimateamcards

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Posted By: ramram

I always thought it interesting that the more readily avialable T200's were the better teams, in general, and the scarce cards were the bottom dwellers. It would lead one to believe that the production of the cards was skewed to the more successful/popular teams.

Rob M.

P.S. My Boson NL was the hardest followed by the St. Louis teams. I actually had three NY AL teams at one time and picked them all up in a fairly short period of time.