Truly Rare Pre-War Cards

[Collect Equity]

I'm still fairly new to this board, so if my question has already been asked, please just point me to the right thread.

In reading auction magazines they claim every card to be 'rare.' But obviously not everything marked as rare would qualify. So for sake of argument, let's say that the definition of rare is a card would have a dozen or less total cards in existence.

My question is, what individual cards, sets or variations of pre-war cards would fall into the category of having 12 cards or less total in existence. To help focus the conversation, let's only focus on cards made after 1900 and only of active major league players or hall of fame player's minor league cards.

So, in everyone's opinion what cards and sets would be included in this survey?

Thanks in advance!

[Brian Van Horn]

1911 Sporting News:

[ullmandds]

there are probably handfuls of cards that are truly rare...but there is no real way to know for sure if 12 or less of a given card exist. you can look at pop reports til the cows come home...but noone really knows what cards are hidden in collections, attics or whatever. as a general rule I use...double the # of known specimens of a given card...and this is likely to be a more accurate guess of # of existing specimens.

[milkit1]

theres gotta be less then 12 of this one:

33 goudey welch.JPG

[benchod]

Well you can start with the cards in the set of your avatar. I think most e107s would qualify

[bcbgcbrcb]

1904 Allegheny cards (all belived to be 1-of-a-kind)

[Collect Equity]

Originally Posted by ullmandds

as a general rule I use...double the # of known specimens of a given card...and this is likely to be a more accurate guess of # of existing specimens.

Do you think this would apply to the t206 Wagner as well? Estimates I've heard say it has 60-70 known copies, so would you say it's closer to 120-140 in actuality?

[Exhibitman]

Many regional cards, esp. minor league issues

[bijoem]

this one.....






and I would suspect many RPPCs would fit your definition of rare.

[novakjr]

I know they're a little earlier than your time frame, but the 1893 Just So Tobacco cards are ridiculously rare. Anyways, I'm gonna have to agree with bijoem and exhibitman, RPPC and team/regional issues are pretty hard to come by. Probably not less than 12, but still extremely difficult.

Here's a website I found with some interesting cards.
http://www.cycleback.com/rarerthanhonus.html

[egbeachley]

I think FKW just listed about 1,000 cards with less than 12 copies each.

I have about 20 cards from a single Contentnea set (non-sports) that are the only copy known.

[calvindog]

[ullmandds]

No...the t206 Wags is the highest profile card in the hobby...and as a result I'd guess most are known.

[Tom S.]

Nobody's mentioned "America's Toughest Want List" yet?

[tedzan]

One can view the premise of "truly rare" in absolute terms (12 cards, or less). Or, another can take the view of
"supply vs. demand"....in my opinion, these two cards are truly rare, since the demand for them is very high.


Most of the 515 (of 524) subjects in the T206 set are available in the 1000's of cards. But to date, only 8 cards
of this error card of "Slow Joe" have been confirmed.









And so far, only 14 cards of the red Cobb with the Ty Cobb back have been found.






TED Z

[ls7plus]

The Boston Garter hall-of-famers.

Larry

[ephus]

I would think any card in the E300 Plow's Candy set would count. Only a couple of each card in the set known to exist. As a side note it is a beautiful set.

[vargha]

R304 Al Demaree Die-Cuts . . . The complete checklist may never be known.