Current trend in E card difficulty?

[goudey1933]

As far as E cards have any become increasingly difficult to find that have been previously relatively common?Cards of extreme rarity aka E107's don't count.Been out of the hobby for 2 years just trying to catch up.

Scott

[Jaybird]

perhaps the lower prices realized on many of them have driven sellers underground waiting for better selling market. E107s as you mention are garnering high prices which bring more to market. If I had a collection of E cards right now, I'd probably be holding.

[rainier2004]

I started my 1915 Cracker Jack set exactly 2 years ago and the lower end commons have increased 150-200% in that time. The most dramatic increase started about 8 months ago into the holiday season and the trend continues up...an sgc 2 common sold for $110 on ebay a few days ago...I paid $45 for mine 18 months ago w/ the same grade. There are fewer cards up for sale as well...it seems there is more competition over cards/lots. I've completely stalled at 140 cards on the set and have only added a "single" card to the set a couple times since the holidays. Don't really know the entire history on these cards but the lower end commons seem to be pretty high currently...

[ullmandds]

I follow caramel cards pretty closely and to me...the trends are that there are a bunch of master caramel set collectors out there...e94, e98...as well as a few oddball/freak caramel collectors.

Many are looking for a certain player with a certain color background color which is placing a premium on these cards as a few fight it out in the auction world...over a perceived/actual "rarity"...who knows?!

Any card with a "wrong" colored background...ie. grey/orange e94, odd E97 background colors...anything different and odd is still desirable.

But as far as I'm aware...there are no new rarities that weren't known a few years ago.

E94, E98 , e107 have continued to thrive...whereas many of the other caramel issues values are depressed!

But hold tight...The T206 bubble is starting to lose some air!!!!!

[GregMitch34]

Big surge in 1914 CJ prices in recent months, with 5s jumping to 600-700 dollars and 4s also climbing suddenly. Any explanation why?

[E93]

As was mentioned above, I don't think there have been any new discoveries of rarities. While some E cards are picking up a bit, generally the prices on them are dramatically lower than they were at their peak about five years ago. IMHO, it is still bargain time on E cards. These things always go in cycles. E cards went on the downward cycle right as the recession hit and so they were hit twice as badly as other areas of vintage baseball card collecting imho.
JimB

[tbob]

I agree with Pete and Jim. There are several master set collectors of E98s and at least one master set collector of E94s which accounts for some of the scarcity of these set cards in the marketplace. Also, I think caramel cards in these two sets have always been tougher than mainstream tobacco card sets, just not always as popular. Finally, the selling prices for low to mid grade E94s and E98s is out of whack with their scarcity right now. I now have doubles on some cards but until the market corrects itself, they are going no where but in the safes.
This is a buyer's market right now and that is what I will continue doing. I believe card prices in general and caramel prices in particular, will rebound.
I can't speak to the CJs as I don't collect them but I remember picking up a lot of nice mid grade commons about 2 years ago for very little and flipping them a year later when I decided not to collect them. I've noticed that these same cards seem to be selling for more now than a year ago and bucking the trend but it may be simply because some collectors have done what they can with the tobacco mainstream sets and have moved in to CJs.

[yanks4]

Cracker Jacks are almost back where they were 3 years ago or so ...They bottomed out about a year and a half ago....... for a while there you could pick up the more common commons in sgc 4 for a hundred or less.....There are fewer cards available in ebay auctions now...... the coming book and anniversary might be helping the upward trend......some commons are very tuff to buy by themselves and have been........were some short printed?.....Also there have been very few available at the national in recent years.........

[shammus]

I follow some sets very closely and other caramel sets not at all, heh...but for the ones I follow - e103s, e98s, e90-3s, etc... it seems as those cards have really dried up and sellers are hanging on to them. You don't see a lot of e103s made available nowadays except for the few on Ebay that have been there for months. e98s are plentiful if you're looking for HOFers. I'm looking for commons and there's very little available. Even the most common of e98 commons (ie..Dooin) are very difficult to come by. I've seen a few more e90-3s and e97s made available lately so maybe those sets is starting to come around a bit.

Was thinking about doing a Master set of the 120 (incl. Cicotte) commons for the e94 set. Yikes, sounds like I'd have a lot of competition though!

[goudey1933]

Originally Posted by shammus

I follow some sets very closely and other caramel sets not at all, heh...but for the ones I follow - e103s, e98s, e90-3s, etc... it seems as those cards have really dried up and sellers are hanging on to them. You don't see a lot of e103s made available nowadays except for the few on Ebay that have been there for months. e98s are plentiful if you're looking for HOFers. I'm looking for commons and there's very little available. Even the most common of e98 commons (ie..Dooin) are very difficult to come by. I've seen a few more e90-3s and e97s made available lately so maybe those sets is starting to come around a bit.

Was thinking about doing a Master set of the 120 (incl. Cicotte) commons for the e94 set. Yikes, sounds like I'd have a lot of competition though!

This may be a stupid question but why is it commons are more difficult then HOF's..it seems it would be the opposite.Is it individuals "flipping" HOF's for profit thus more available as compaired to the person who buys a common most times is interested in completing a set or even a type set so they sit in a collection.

Scott

[caramelcard]

They're all wasting away in overpriced dealer museums.

[shammus]

Originally Posted by goudey1933

This may be a stupid question but why is it commons are more difficult then HOF's..it seems it would be the opposite.Is it individuals "flipping" HOF's for profit thus more available as compaired to the person who buys a common most times is interested in completing a set or even a type set so they sit in a collection.

Scott

My theory on the commons is that kids from the 1910s, when they got the players in packs of candy, they were more like to keep or "take better care" of the big-name players from their time that they recognized or were likely amongst their favorite players. Guys they have never heard of were likely easier to discard, trade away or otherwise lose track of. This isn't true for all sets of course, and I don't really know if it's true for ANY set actually but I do know that it's pretty easy to get just about any HOFer you want out of the e98 set (money aside) but trying to get even a couple commons is like pulling teeth. Take a look at what Ebay is currently offering for e98s and you'll see what I mean. It's like 25 HOFers are available and 2-3 commons...

[tbob]

Originally Posted by shammus

I follow some sets very closely and other caramel sets not at all, heh...but for the ones I follow - e103s, e98s, e90-3s, etc... it seems as those cards have really dried up and sellers are hanging on to them. You don't see a lot of e103s made available nowadays except for the few on Ebay that have been there for months. e98s are plentiful if you're looking for HOFers. I'm looking for commons and there's very little available. Even the most common of e98 commons (ie..Dooin) are very difficult to come by. I've seen a few more e90-3s and e97s made available lately so maybe those sets is starting to come around a bit.

Was thinking about doing a Master set of the 120 (incl. Cicotte) commons for the e94 set. Yikes, sounds like I'd have a lot of competition though!

I usually never try to disuade any collector from collecting anything but I really don't think you want to try a non-HOF master set. I am down to a handful of color variations and haven't added a card in almost 2 years because certain color variations either don't come up ANYWHERE or maybe don't exist. It's very frustrating. You also end up paying too much for low grade cards because if one does come up, you know you will probably never see another. I agonized over buying the violet Cobb with borders trimmed off but decided not to pull the switch. I have 5 color variations of the Murray card, for example, but am not sure if a violet background one even exists! Very frustrating......

[sportscardpete]

I think the time to buy caramels was end of 2010- early 2011. Prices have for the most part appreciated over the past year.

[ScottFandango]

out of the 400 or so cards available on ebay, most are commons or common HOFs and only a handful are in auction format...most are sat at very high BIN and have been stagnant as far as inventory...

some low pop E90 cards rarely show up on ebay anymore...

and forget a rare card auction, not in existence anymore, as the well known rarities have hefty BIN prices....

[g_vezina_c55]

Originally Posted by ScottFandango

out of the 400 or so cards available on ebay, most are commons or common HOFs and only a handful are in auction format...most are sat at very high BIN and have been stagnant as far as inventory...

some low pop E90 cards rarely show up on ebay anymore...

and forget a rare card auction, not in existence anymore, as the well known rarities have hefty BIN prices....

Ebay is not an auction place since a couple years, it is a bigggg Wal Mart with item at fixed price.