Caramel Card set collecting

[Archive]

Posted By: Brian McQueen

Some great feedback so far guys....I'll give my input on some of the other sets that have come up thus far. With sets like e93, e98 and e95, my take on them is that while e95 might be a little more readily available, all of them can be tricky because they all have Wagner/Cobb/Matty cards which people are sometimes less than willing to give up for a reasonable price. However, for the most part, cards from all these sets are mostly easy to come by if you have the funds (like Bryan said). One interesting item of note in completing these sets is that whereas some sets have a "notable obstacle" like an e90-3 Gandil or an e102 Miller fielding....I don't believe these sets have anything insanely scarce like that to interfere with completion.

The same can be said for e90-2. I feel that most of the cards in this set aren't any more difficult to come by than, say e98 cards, yet that Wagner is a huge obstacle, financially speaking. Of all the "beginning to intermediate" level sets we've been discussing, the e90-2 Wagner, while available, will put the largest strain on your pocketbook. Although, once you get that, you're only 10 cards away from completing the set

I really like the e96 set and I think it's really the best set I've seen so far for the beginning collector who's not really into e90-1 or e91 but doesn't want to invest the money to bring in a Wagner or a Cobb that would be needed for e95, e93, etc... I was working on this set at one point, and it seemed like even the cards rumored to be harder...ie...Kling, Tinker, Baker, etc...came very easily. It seems that Mack and Lajoie don't come along very often however. Although, at any given point, you'll get the most results for e95 and e96 cards when searching on Ebay.

I definately agree with Rob on the e103 set. HOFers rarely show up for this set and even commons are hard to come by. I swear I see more e107s on Ebay than I do e103s. It seems as though this set is sort of "stuck" between the "accessible" sets (e93, e98 etc...) and the insanely difficult sets (e97 B&W, e107) which could make it less popular because the cards might not necessarily appeal to beginners or advanced collectors. I've also heard several people complain about the artwork. I believe I remember one board member pointing out that "everyone's hair in this set is red for some reason..." These issues involving it's popularity may help to explain why this set is sometimes viewed as undervalued. It seems to me that while I know of multiple collectors going after each of the sets we've mentioned to this point, I don't know of really anyone actively pursuing an e103 set. However, when a decent e103 does become available, there's some fairly healthy competition for the card. I'd also say this set is significantly harder than even e90-3 to complete. The Cobb and Wagner cards signficantly exceed those cards from other sets in market value and it would seem that even the most commonly seen e103s are seldom made available. In other words, if I'm a type collector, I'll probably find 6-7 e90-3s before I find a single e103.

Great reading guys....thanks again!