Question for the E90-1 Experts

[FrankWakefield]

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[pkaufman]

I certainly can't argue with your supposition that some cards are much rarer than others irregardless of condition. I have personally found the Shean, McLean, Stahl, Walsh, Speaker, and Wagner throwing to be among the toughest, no matter what criteria one is using.

[FrankWakefield]

I agree that some cards got trimmed just to 'fit' into a tobacco card stack, or into sleeves or holders. But I am satisfied that there are fewer Walsh's, and Sweeney's out there, than a bunch of the other E90-1s. And if accepting one that is trimmed is ok, that still doesn't drop the card down to 'common' in terms of availability. So if your point was that condition did not matter, then more all of the Mitchells out there would be acceptable, instead of only settling for a slabbed 9 of Mitchell for the Northern Hemisphere's Toughest Want List, for example.

Still. Mitchell is tough. Sweeney and Graham are tough. Notwithstanding condition.

[pkaufman]

Please refer to post #24 for your answer.

[FrankWakefield]

Right.

[Steve D]

Thanks for the clarification on Wagner guys! I guess I might not be so crazy after all.

Here are scans of all my HOFer cards:











Seven more to go.....

Steve

[edhans]

Ted,
While I substantially agree with your lists of e90-1s toughest subjects, we simply can't think of the distribution as "series 1, 2, and 3". It's vastly more complicated than that. A simple comparison of the toughest card on your list (pick any one from the first list) and the easiest (Hall?, B. Brown?) must lead to the conclusion that they were not part of the "last series". There's simply too much disparity in the difficulty of Mitchell or Shean vs Brown or Hall to think they were printed on the same sheet in the same quantities. I see E90-1 as at least six distinct printings, with subjects added, deleted and changed as the process went along. One could even make the argument that there was a regional distribution, as most (not all) of the Philadelphia and St. Louis subjects are rather common and most of those from Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, and Boston tend to be much scarcer. There seems to be a relationship between American Caramel's other issues (E91, E90-2 and E90-3) and, as you have previously observed, tobacco issues like T204 and T206. I have even wondered if E90-1s distribution might follow a similar pattern to E95/96. It's a most fascinating set that certainly merits further study.