Ranking the difficulty of 20th Century Prewar sets

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Posted By: Wesley

How do each of these sets compare to one another in terms of difficulty?

T206 Uzit or Drum
T208 Cullivan Fireside
T214 Victory
T215 Red Cross
T217 Mono
E94 Overprints
E98 Old Put
E104-3 Nadja
E222 AWH
M131 Baltimore News
E224 Texas Tommy
E300 Plow Candy
D359 Williams or Rochester

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Posted By: pete ullman

easiest to hardest...here's my guess?!?!

red cross
d359
E104-3 Nadja
t206 uzit
the rest I'd say are a wash...all extremely tough!!!

pete in mn

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Posted By: Ben

All of those sets/cards are extremely tough. On a per card basis, I would say that the t206 uzit/drum, D359's, red crosses, and maybe the plows candy's are the "easiest". I don't think that e94 overprints or e98 old puts count as a legitimate SET, so it would be somewhat misleading to rank them on the same grounds as the others.

After those, it's pretty much a wash like pete says. You can pretty much file the rest in the "insanely difficult" category and leave it at that.

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Posted By: Scott Elkins

If I am not mistaken, there is only one card for each player known from the M131 set. From there - the Cullivan's Fireside would probably rank second. The easiest of this list would be the T215 Red Cross cards - you can always seem to find an example (though it is usually low grade and a few hundred dollars). One can also find a T206 Uzit/Drum rather easily if they are willing to pay the price. And, there have been several E300 Plows available within the last year as well (mostly from the "find" of around 100 a few years back). The remaining sets are all tough and somewhere in the middle.

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Posted By: leon

It is not true that there is only one player each of the M131 set. I have a McGraw and have seen 1-2 more...All of the background colors are blue though........that is a very tough list....regards

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Posted By: Bob Marquette

Leon- he might mean that there is only one known graded example of each card in the M131 set. I have a Cicotte which I'd love to upgrade someday but I don't know of any others out there...
tbob

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Posted By: leon

Scotty might have meant that but that's not what he said.....if he would have said one "graded" card then I would not have responded....c'mon now, you being a lawyer and all should understand my methodology....regards

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Posted By: Wesley

Judging by the availability in auctions, it appears to me the Cullivan Firesides come up least often.
Drum back and Uzit back T206 cards are very expensive but do show up more frequently than the other cards on the list. Recently I have seem large groups of T217 Mono, E300 Plow, and D359 cards, but have never seen large groups of any of the other cards on the list. The big groups of T217, E300 and D359 cards may deceptive since they came from long-time collectors and once they are absorbed again in collections, it may be a long time before they come up again.

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Posted By: Scott Elkins

I haven't followed them that closely and have never owned one, since being outbid on the Fair Cobb before it was slabbed.

Leon was correct - I thought there was only one known example of each (think I read that somewhere years ago from Lipset or someone). Anyway, thanks for educating me on that one Leon! I guess that would mean Cullivan's are scarcer than the Balt. News cards!?!?

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Posted By: jay behrens

Has anyone completed the Fireside set? When I got out of the hobby in 1991 I knew of someone that was 2 cards away from completion.

Jay

I like to sit outside drink beer and yell at people. If I did this at home I would be arrested, so I go to baseball games and fit right in.

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Posted By: Wesley

Jay, I do not think there are any complete sets of Cullivan Fireside cards. I have read somewhere that someone had up to six of them at one point though.

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Posted By: murcerfan

I know a collector that has nearly completed the T208 set, I believe he may be 4 or 5 cards shy. If my memory serves, He also is one card away on Williams and two cards shy of a Rochester D359 set.

He lurks here, so maybe this will be his invitation to join the discussion.

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Posted By: Andrew

When was the last time a Fans Cigarette example was for sale/auction? Something like five known, correct?

“A smooth sea never made a skilled mariner.” - English Proverb

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Posted By: Zach

There is only one know example and Leon has it...there is also a photocopy of another card from the set but no one knows where it is or who has it. Is this correct ?

edited by Leon....Zach-I didn't care to bump this to the top as some think I brag too much already...the answer is "yes"