E107 anyone?

[terjung]

Originally Posted by rainier2004

Ok, Im new....what are these e107's, how many are in the set and where do I get a Carline Munroe at?

Extremely tough set issued in 1903-1904 that is the first major set of the 20th century. The set is largely attributed to Breisch-Williams caramel company, but may have been issued by more other companies as well. They come with two basis backs - namely "one of a hundred and fifty prominent baseball players" and blank backs. The back indicates that there are 150 players in the set, but only 147 players have been found to date. A handful of players have team variations, which pushes the master set over 150 to somewhere around 161. There is a great article by Brian McQueen in Old Cardboard (Issue #4 - Summer 2005). It is required reading for anyone interested in the set. (Actually, the entire publication is fantastic. Subscribe if you don't already.)

You will note on some of the flips where "Type 1" is denoted. There is a "Type 2" of E107s. This does not refer to the second kind of back, but rather refers to a handful of "cards" that have been found with the same image. About 9 players (perhaps a couple more, I don't recall) have been found that have been classified as "Type 2". They are all hand cut and on thicker stock of paper. It has been hypothesized that they were all cut from an advertising display. No one knows for sure at this point, but they are more scarce than even the Type 1 cards. In general, when people refer to E107s, they are talking about the Type 1 cards.

Some players are tougher than others. I think it can safely be stated that the surviving population of any card is less than 20. A handful of Philadelphia players are the more commonly found and they are probably in the 10-20 range. It is commonly held that many of the cards only have single digit populations (graded + raw). If you are looking for a type card from E107 set, it won't be impossible to find / acquire due to the number of cards in the set; however, if you are looking to add a specific player from the set, the challenge increases dramatically.