E107 Breisch Williams - As Complete a Set as exists

[JimC]

This is just stunning. Thanks very much for sharing this.

Here are my unsolicited favorites:

The Chief Bender card is hands down my favorite card in the set. I'd take it even over the Young and Wagner.

As a Cobb fan I have to love the Harry Bemis. Cool picture.

The Jimmy Collins and Lajoie cards are outstanding.

I can't decide if Jimmy Sheckard looks more like a gangster or a politician.

Some kid really loved Eddie Plank, because he must have carried those cards around in his pocket. But he didn't like Ed Poole. I love that Ed Poole was traded for reading novels in the dugout. And why is he halfway down the card? Did they use the kiddie stool to pose him?

The Doc Powers portrait is a beautiful card. Harry Steinfeldt too.

Fred Tenney may be the all time human being who looks worst with a mustache. I'm including women.

Little Joe Yeager looks 12 and Vic Willis just looks confused.

Emmet Heidrick looks like he's trying to pose for a postage stamp. Or be a European general.

Historic set, Ryan. Unbelievable.

[shammus]

Oh man. Seeing this group together makes me look at my small gathering of e107s over here and go "...see that boys??? We can do it, it's possible after all! Let's keep going!..."

Seriously though, thank you for taking the time to scan all these in for us. Many of these cards have NEVER been seen by the majority of this community. It's a pure treat just to get to see them. And all the OP backs? Wow...what a find. A couple questions if I may -

I once theorized that the Type 2 e107s came from multiple different advertising pieces / display boxes. I have owned two Type 2s, one of which was a Delehanty, that had a back that was as white and smooth as a cue ball. At the time, which was maybe 15 years ago, I had thrown the idea out there of a Type 3 e107 existing, since it was clear that the card wasn't the same sort of paper stock as the heavier, greyish Type 2s and certainly was not a Type 1 either. In your collecting this set, have you ever come across such a Type 2?

This might be a question for anyone reading this thread - I also remember asking a long time ago about the Type 2 Socks Seybold. I had the other 7 Type 2s at the time and could never verify that the Seybold existed. Anyone ever seen one of these?

Again, a beauty of a collection. I'm going to go ahead and add this thread to our Archive page as well so people won't have to look to hard to find this in years to come.

https://www.net54baseball.com/forum/...ivecenter.html

[Baseball Rarities]

Originally Posted by shammus

This might be a question for anyone reading this thread - I also remember asking a long time ago about the Type 2 Socks Seybold. I had the other 7 Type 2s at the time and could never verify that the Seybold existed. Anyone ever seen one of these?

Congrats on the E107s Ryan. I remember seeing the basis for this set 30 or so years ago. It is a great collection.

Brian - I have never seen a Type 2 Seybold, but I have had it on my checklist since the early 1980s. Also, Lipset lists it in his 1984 book and specifically states that the "caption as in checklist" whereas he notes that others such as Delahanty and Keeler have different captions. Lew was pretty meticulous with his E107 checklist and I doubt that he would have included a card if he had not verified it himself.

[prestigecollectibles]

What an incredible collection. I've never seen so many E107 cards in one place. Congratulations!

[Tao_Moko]

One of a kind. The Young is my favorite card of all time.

[BobC]

Ryan, That is fantastic! Great acquisition.

[rjackson44]

Pretty

[Tim Kindler]

Ryan,
Thanks so much for taking the time to show these to us!!!! Just simply amazing! Love how clean the fronts of the collection are!!!

Especially love the Chic Stahl! One of only a few issues with his image on them. I visit his grave site here in Fort Wayne once and awhile and wonder why he might have done what he is believed to have done to himself to end his life and career...tragic story!

As a few others have stated, this collection is museum worthy!

Tim Kindler

[sulldux]

Chris Sullivan here. Congratulations Ryan on a tremendous acquisition. It's one of the truly historic sets in our hobby and I hope you'll enjoy it for a long time. If I'm correct the prior owner won the (core) set in July/96 in a Mastro auction. If so I was the underbidder. At the time I was living with my family in Switzerland on business and I had about 30-50 cards at the time and I made a run for this set. At some point I was leading in the bidding because at about 4 AM I received a couple of phone calls from Bill Mastro asking who I was and who did I know in the hobby and on and on, but all through the calls implying that I damn well better pay for the set if I won it!! Haha. I wished then and I wish now that I had won it. I think it went in the mid 30's. After I lost I continued to accumulate them through the years. I got to a complete player set missing about 6 team variations before I sold them in 2012-13. Once again congrats and enjoy. They are the Faberge Eggs of our hobby

[shagrotn77]

Wowzers! My eyes were immediately drawn to the Bender. What a beauty! And 2 Planks? Who has 2 Planks from this set? Just incredible. Thanks for sharing.

[alywa]

My goodness... So happy this thread popped back up. What an amazing thing, incredible to see.

[michael3322]

Absolutely incredible set.

Is there a library for museum that would be interested in borrowing them for an exhibit? One almost feels like they are worthy of such attention, spaced out as individual cards, with a brief bio of each of the players.

[Yoda]

In these times to assemble such an incredible grouping of these very special. They represent the bridge to 20th cards and now that you actually own them is astounding. You realize that henceforth, Ryan, you are now the Godfather of E107's forever. Hyper congrats.
When I saw the Matty card, I cringed, for at one time I held one and, as i recall, it was a nice specimen. Kevin S. might remember it.

[h2oya311]

Amazing collection there, sir! Fantastic acquisition!

I feel like there was a huge collection of E107s that sold not too long ago at one of the big-boy auction houses. Was that collection the same one that Ryan just acquired, or separate?

Anyway, it will be fun to see if you can continue upgrading this collection (or to find the one missing card) to make it even more amazing than it already is!

[sb1]

Chris Sullivan's near set was broken up about a decade ago by Mastro/Legendary.

[Rhotchkiss]

Guys, I think its clear in my opening post, but to restate/clarify: I did NOT assemble this set. Instead, I acquired it from a single collector, who had assembled some of it. The bulk of the set comes from a legacy portfolio that initially came from a scrap book. The person I bought it from added to that legacy portfolio to create the the collection I posted.

I do not plan on upgrading the set, aside from the occasional HOFer or if I find a better version of a real beater. That said, I already own better quality examples of Young, Plank, Keeler, Waddell and Lajoie Type II and I will be substituting these better examples for the ones in the current set.

As a member pointed out to me, the set you see has 5 "extras", including Plank. I do not know why these extras remain but I believe they are undergrades to their better counterparts. I have no direct access to the immediate seller/former owner, so I cannot ask.

The person from whom I acquired the set is a long-time, and very accomplished and knowledgeable collector. It is my understanding that he believes this set is complete, except the Seybold Type II, which I understand he has never seen and does not know to exist, although (as Kevin mentioned) he believes it could/does exist. I have spoken with numerous people who have much more knowledge about the set than I, and none of them have ever seen a Seybold Type II; yet the general consensus is one likely exits because it keeps ending up in various checklists. ALSO, SGC shows a Whitey Alperman on its pop report, but nobody I have spoken with believes that exists, especially considering that Whitey's first season was in 1906.

I am hardly the godfather of E107. In fact, I know relatively little about the set other than what I shared. There are many here who know a ton more than me in their little finger! I love that this set has so many rookies, that the T206 portraits derived here, that the cards are so damn rare, and that it is the only set spanning 1986-1908. I also love that it is the only known "complete set" out there. Its a super important set and I could not pass on the chance to own it AND to ensure (at least for now) that it stays intact and is not broken up card by card.