Great cards that could have been...

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Posted By: Ben

Unfortunately, many pre-war sets failed to include some of the biggest stars in the game. For example, Walter Johnson hardly has any caramel cards at all! Besides his Cracker Jack and 1920's cards (e121, Neilson's Chocolate, etc) I can't think of ANY Johnson e cards. I guess the only explanation for this is that he played for subpar Washington teams his whole career. Here are a few cards that I think would have been awesome, but for some reason, were never produced:

Mayo Cy Young

t204 Ramly Cobb, Wagner, etc

t205 Wagner


So I guess this is a two part question:

1) What are your dream cards that were never actually produced?

2) Why on earth did tobacco and candy companies omit many of the great stars of the time from their sets?

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Posted By: runscott

e95 or e96 Walter Johnson
t206 Connie Mack, Tris Speaker portrait, Ed Reulbach portrait
Ramley Christy Mathewson

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Posted By: sweetguy28

1914 Coupon Cigarettes Joe Jackson

Yes that Ramly Wagner would have been great

I have had fun collecting the 40 Playball cards of Honus Wagner, Walter Johnson and some of the others that were past their playing dasy as they are more affordable.

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Posted By: RobertS

Easy call -- T206 or T207 Joe Jackson!

Joe is mentioned on the reverse of the T207 Butcher card, however.

Also -- for my tastes -- how about a Fatima Hal Chase or a Ramly Chase!

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Posted By: the illini

Mayo's Burkett, T206 Joe Jackson Southern Leaguer, 1915 Cracker Jack Babe Ruth would be my top three.

Great topic Ben!!!

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Posted By: sweetguy28

1915 Cracker Jack Jim Thorpe

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Posted By: Kevin Cummings

.....they would have made an

N172 Old Judge - Charlie Jones
N300 Mayo - Bill Lange
N300 Mayo - Jack Stivetts
N300 Mayo - Jake Stenzel
N300 Mayo - George Cuppy
E107 Breisch Williams - Charles Stahl

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Posted By: Brian H.

T205s -- Crawford, Wagner, Lajoie, Plank
1933 (or any other 30's card) Judge Landes.
Josh Gibson (among many other Negro League greats) on anything during his career).
Cracker Jack -- Buck Weaver
Fred McMullen & Sweede Rinsberg (on something besides minor league or strip cards)

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Posted By: julie

Joe Jackson on both T205 and T202.
Mayo Burkett, Davis and McPhee
Ruth on a '34 Goudey (as someone pointed out, it's a dinky little set, anyway)

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Posted By: Anthony

'15 Cracker Jack Babe Ruth, Boston
Diamond Stars of Ruth and Gehrig
'53 Bowman Mays or Williams

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Posted By: julie

I remember, when I had the '53 Bowman set, every last card of it, how I wished there were a J. Robinson. With their great, great photography, I'm sure it would have been wonderful.

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Posted By: brian parker

T227 Christy Mathewson
1937-38 Zeenut Ted Williams
E95/E96 Tris Speaker

By the way, Walter Johnson was in a few 1910 era 'E' sets--the E91c (although the artwork on this card is actually a fairly decent depiction of Rube Waddell), and a couple of really esoteric issues--E300 Plows Candy and E224 Texas Tommy.

Brian

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Posted By: ty_cobb

T206 Honus Wagner batting
T206 Joe Jackson (w. Hustler back?)

But seriously, they never made any attempt
to update any teams featuring the stars of 1910.
From the World Champion A's they left out Jack
Coombs (31 wins), Cy Morgan, and Jack Lapp.
Also from the Al Smokey Joe Wood. From the Nl
they left out 3 of the top five pitchers by wins:
Moore, King Cole, and Suggs.

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Posted By: murcerfan

Joe Jackson T206
Mickey Mantle 1954 Wilson Franks
T222......oh the possibilities!

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Posted By: Andy Baran

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Posted By: Prewarsports.com

I would have loved to see a Louis Sockalexis card, but since Cameo Pepsin and the 1899 Sporting News would be the only sets around that time they would have to do. There is also speculation that a 13 year old pitched for Philadelphia in 1888 and an Old Judge card of him would have been nice.

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Posted By: Peter Thomas

These are very nice but don't let eagle8016 see them.
Being a Ramly collector I'd like more Hall of Famers in the set. Also Ruth (Boston) CJ - peter

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Posted By: TBob

E94 Mathewson
E94 Johnson
T207 Chick Gandil, Happy Felsch, Swede Risberg, Joe Jackson, Lefty Williams

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Posted By: Bob Lemke

1952 Globe Printing Eau Claire Bears Henry Aaron
1956 Topps Charlie Grimm
1955 Bowman George Crowe
1957 Topps Bob Hazle

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Posted By: Jay Miller

1890 Old Judge Cy Young. Since 1890 cards were basically reissues of 1889 cards with team changes this would have been impossible, but an interesting thought none-the-less.

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Posted By: julie

A picture's worth a bunch of words--unless it's an ebay scan.

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Posted By: petecld

"A picture's worth a bunch of words--unless it's an ebay scan."



Then it's usully worth a bunch of swear words.

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Posted By: Paul

I'd have to agree Andy's pictures are among the best cards that should have been. I also would have liked to see an E107 Burkett and an E107 or W600 Frank Selee. I'd also like to see a W600 Burkett or Branch Rickey. Both of these actually were issued, or at least available for purchase, but as far as I know none have survived.

Other great non-existent cards would have to include the D381 Fleischman's Ruth, and a T-205 Joe Wood.

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Posted By: julie

I collect T202s--and there are 2 or 3 of him in that set--always paired with Speaker. Lately, I've been trying to pick up the T205s that have cards that Are NOT in the T202 set--didn't realize it went both ways!

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Posted By: Bob

T206's of Duffy Lewis, Harry Hooper and Joe Wood.

Diamond Stars of Babe and Lou Gehrig

There were a great deal of great looking athletic/boxing cards such as the T218 by Hassan, Mecca etc. It would have been great if they had issued a large BB set, besides the 4 i nseries of chanpions, similar to the T206's but larger in size with all the greats of the era.

1952 Topps Ted Williams and Stan Musial

As to the second part of your question, I believe that local sportswriters lined up the players to appear in the T206 (and others?) sets. I guess the sportswriters in some cites were more successful in signing up players. I think that help explains why there are something like 30+ NY Giants but under 10 Boston Red Sox in the T206 set.

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Posted By: Craig

How about it?

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Posted By: botn

Many were already mentioned but I will add the following:

T227 Jackson and Wagner
N162 Delahanty

And because I am a huge Jackie Robinson fan:
1957 Topps
1954 Wilson Franks
Any of the Stahl Meyers from 1953 to 1955