Anybody care to dive in deeper with E98 information?

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Posted By: Brian McQueen

This is yet another of my favorite sets so I thought I’d chime in. Terrific cards all-around and one that I’d describe as very “middle of the road” in terms of difficulty so it’s a nice one to start in hopes of completion. The cards are slightly tougher to come by than e93s, e102s and e101s yet are not quite as challenging as the next wave of sets (where cards begin to get really difficult and completion may be next to impossible) which include e97, e94, e103, e106, etc…While specific cards may be tougher to come by, I’d consider this set easier to put together than e101 and e102 though just as long as you have the money for Cobb, Wagner, Matty, Young, Mack and on and on.

One thing about this set that I always liked is that there are quite a few players in this set (ie…Dahlen, Coombs, etc..) that you don’t see in too many of the other caramel sets out there. Many of the poses are unique to this set as well. A couple favorites of mine include the “Walsh swinging away”, “Mack on the toilet”, and the “Matty wind-up” pose.

In identifying “set toughies” for this set, I used to think that it was simply Tenny, Coombs and all the others that people have already mentioned. Yet from what I’ve seen, it really does appear that most the commons are difficult and as a whole, are significantly tougher to find than the HOFers. I think a couple of the players like Mullin and Ford do come up a little more often but with this set, it’s a lot easier to list the commons that WON’T give you a hard time. However, the good news is that even the worst of these can had with some persistance. I’ve seen all the toughest ones available several times apiece in the past few months. A lot of the HOFers, including the pricy ones, seem to come up much more regularly.

In terms of color availability, I never thought one color is significantly more difficult than any of the others. Green may hold a slight edge but I always thought things were pretty equal. When I collected the set, I went after oranges and seeing a bunch of those lined up on a webpage together looked really impressive! I don’t believe any “printing anomalies” exist in this set, as they do in e94, e90-3, etc…, where a card has turned up with a totally different color to it other than the standard four. There are a couple that have turned up with an Old Put overprint on the back though.

One drawback to this set is that the top-tier HOFers go for quite a bit. So if you get to the end of the set and you’re needing a Cobb, Wagner and Matty, do be aware that you may be coughing up ten grand just to get these final three cards in non-beater condition. This was sort of a deterrant to me when it came to finishing off the set. It wasn’t a challenge finding these really, just being willing to put forth the cash. This can be considered a drawback towards completing MOST sets though, so you really shouldn’t hold it against this one.

Hope this helps,
Brian