E98 Questions

[rdixon1208]

I know E98's come in four different colors. Is any one color harder to come by than the others set wide, or does it vary by subject? Lets say you don't care about the color...are there any subjects that are scarcer than the others? Also, what is the estimated population of this set in relation to E93, E95, and E96? Thanks

[Leon]

I wouldn't usually direct folks to our archive center but there is some great E98 info over there...
(icon on right of screen)

http://www.network54.com/Forum/15365...8+information-

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[tiger8mush]

prices have been pretty healthy on E98s lately so be prepared

[shammus]

I always kind of thought the greener ones were a little tougher. In my own personal collection, I have a lot of orange and reds but very few greens. I suppose that's all a matter of who you ask though.

In terms of relative availability, I'd view the e93, e95 and e96 sets in one catagory and e98s in a different league altogether. I'd consider those up there with e97s...maybe even e103s in terms of difficulty. Mostly though because of the commons. Seems that HOFers are pretty easy to come by but commons can be a pain.

Just for fun, I threw a scan on here of a few of my e98 "scrap" cards. Got a couple with oversized borders that's been handcut and another that seemingly missed a few print runs (maybe) and now has very little color for whatever reason.

Hope this helps! Good luck Robert!

e98-001.jpg

e98 scrap 001.jpg

[rdixon1208]

Thanks for the help guys. And really cool cards Brian!

[tiger8mush]

love the orange Ford & Coombs!

[tbob]

After completing the set, I began putting together a red set and I have found that reds (with the exception of a few like Walsh) are much tougher to find, especially in nice shape. Just my 2 cents. Try and find a red Lajoie!

[Tim Kindler]

Sorry I didn't comment on this thread earlier, but in my experience with them, it is the Blue Backgrounds that have always (AND STILL) given me the most trouble. I rarely see blues come up , and when they do, they are usually in poorer condition. It's funny how different colors seem to be more difficult to different people collecting them. I will say that finding them is getting increasingly difficult no matter what background/player you are looking for. Don't let that large lot of them in Goodwin fool you. These lots don't come up for sale like this too often. I can't remember the last time I saw more than a few come up for sale individually until last night. Legendary had a near set about 5 months back, but you had to fork out $10 Grand to get it, just to get the few player/color combinations that you needed, which wasn't happening on my budget. Memory Lane also recently sold a complete set for over $13 grand.
Of course the Matty, Cobb, Wagner, Young, and Mack are going to be really expensive to get, but they are somewhat easier to find (Except for the Mack which is very difficult, except for Green Background) But, it has been my experience that the toughest 3 Hall of Famers to find (in any color) are in this order: Lajoie, Jennings, and Mack. Easiest for me have been McGraw, Chance, and Evers. Toughest 3 Commons in my opinion are: Coombs, Bridwell, and Dahlen. Easiest 2 are Mullin & Dooin. I will echo others in saying that the Commons are tougher to find for sale. Commons are certainly easier to purchase because they are substantually cheaper, but harder to find for sale than the Hall of Famers.
For example: I am still in need of 14 cards for the Master Set: 6 Blues,
3 Greens, 2 Oranges, and 3 Reds. 7 Commons and 7 Hall of Famers.

[HRBAKER]

I am not an E98 collector per se but I collect A's and I will tell you it took me several years to win a Coombs. They do not come up for sale very often and when they did I seriously misread the market for them for a long time. Finally snagged one in 2009.

[Tim Kindler]

Jeff,
Totally agree! Extremely tough, hence why Brian's "scrap" of Coombs earlier in the thread is even more impressive! Sweet card Brian!

[shammus]

Thanks Tim! You know, for a long time I thought the e98 set was a pretty clean set. Other than the highly scarce "old put" back which would turn up once in a great while, I didn't thinking there were any other variations, printing goofs or anomalies that were tied to e98s. However in the past several months alone, blank backed cards, oversized handcut cards, and cards missing colors have all surfaced. Kind of made this set much more interesting to collect in my opinion

[pcoz]

Great to see some threads on the E98's! The orange have been the most elusive for me. Although, I agree with Tim that the blue have been unquestionably in the poorest condition for some reason when found. In general, the E98's have dried up these past couple years. The Goodwin auction was an anomaly, but hope we see more as the year rolls on after seeing some stronger prices. Along with Tim, the most difficult HOF'ers I've found to be are Lajoie, Jennings, & Mack. Although, Clarke is close behind. The easiest HOF'ers are McGraw & Chance. Also, Collins seems to show up a little more than you'd think. The toughest commons IMO are Coombs, Bridwell, Dahlen & Tenney, in that order, and easiest being Mullin, Dooin & Ford. I'd put McLean as an underrated tough common as well.

[tbob]

It's surprising to me that Hippo Vaughn isn't being mentioned as a tough card in the set. Not that long ago it was generally considered to be the toughest to find, with Coombs a close 2nd.
I am still chasing a red Lajoie. It is amazing how tough that card is. I once had one in a PSA 3 holder but it was labeled an E93 Lajoie, presumably because the E93 Lajoie is not that tough to find and the E93 Lajoie has a reddish/purplish background with the same picture. The red Lajoie is a fire engine red and if you compare the two it is easy to see the difference. I keep checking every E93 Lajoie on ebay to see if there has been another labeling mistake but haven't found one. BTW, I crossed the Lajoie over to an SGC 40 but their first attempt at labeling had it as an E93 also! It is now in the possession of a board member as an E98 Lajoie correctly and I often regret that sale more than any other card I've sold...

[shammus]

Since we're comparing notes on "set toughies", I'll throw my 2 cents in -

For HOFers - always thought Clarke and Mack were tough and for a while I thought Walsh was too. Seen a lot more Walsh's the past couple years though. McGraw, Evers and Chance seem to be all over the place in my opinion.

Commons - At the top of my list would be Coombs and Vaughn - with the price on the red Vaughn a couple nights ago being more than enough evidence to show that it's a tough one. Tenny is right there with them though and after him would be Dahlen and Kling.

Really though, you could almost make an argument for just about any e98 common as a set toughie with the exception of just a couple cards. e98 commons are getting tougher in general and really starting to dry up. Look at Ebay right now and you'll see how many HOFers there are compared what few overpriced commons are available. If I had to pick one as the easiest, I would say it would have to be Dooin. But even the Dooin is not a card that you can just go out and buy immediately. Even that one takes some looking.

[pcoz]

I agree Vaughn is one of the most difficult, but that all in general are tough to find including Kling. The concensus seems to be the red's might be the toughest set of all the colors to put together, which may have added to the Vaughn price. Either way, the price certainly shows how difficult Vaughn is to find in general. The red Lajoie might be the single toughest card of them all.

[caramelcard]

I think it's all about perspective.

With the color backgrounds, green was technically the hardest for me when I was working on the master set (reached over 100). Tim has found blue to be the hardest. Another opinion before I started the set was red.

I think my data and Tim's data (the breakdown of the cards in the collections) both show that each of the four colors come up at about the same frequency.

I think they printed the colors in equal amounts and inserted in equal amounts. Since the set truly is anonymous, I've theorized that different colors were given away with different products (and some products may have been more popular), but I have no hard proof.

We do however have accumulations that have been found together. Groups of green cards, red cards, etc. That would support that theory. And, the Old Puts support the theory.

Anyways, as far as players go, Coombs and Vaughn use to have legendary status in terms of how hard they were to find. And some have had problems with Dahlen and Walsh. And down the line... Different collectors have had different problem cards.

I never had any problems finding any Lajoie or Mack cards, but I surely believe you guys when you say they're difficult for you.

I will say that I definitely believe there are cards that are easier than others. I think Dooin is one of the easiest in the set. And I agree that the hofers are easier in general.

There are a lot of e98s out there tucked away in collections. They're less available, but they exist.

For those of you who purchased mine. I'd like them back please. Thanks.


Rob

[wonkaticket]

Never really blown away by this set but it does have some neat cards. Here are the few I found when I was a kid collecting and my only ones...notice the NM Mack.



Cheers,

John

[Rob D.]

The only four I own. The blue was the toughest for me to find in nice shape. The orange is my favorite.

[jtschantz]

Rob...I'll "see" your four Lajoies, and raise you a pair of Chances and a Big Six and a Peach!

[Tim Kindler]

Love reading everyone's thoughts and opinions on E98s. Those who know me, know these are my collecting passion. I love all cards, but there is just something about these E98s that draws me as a collector!
Bob had mentioned the Vaughn. It is the lowest populated card on the SGC Registry and one of the lowest on the PSA registry. Now there are certainly others out there that are raw as well, but even those I would asume are few and far between. I guess for me, I would have to rank the Vaughn behind the Coombs, Bridwell, and Dahlen just because I was able to get one of each quickly in my pursuit of the Master Set. I guess I just happened to get lucky because I haven't seen many of them. In fact, I have seen more red Vaughns for sale over the years than the other colors which is what blew me away on the price it brought the other night.
Awesome Lajoies Rob! I love seeing those all in one picture. I believe that Red one is the one Bob was talking about. I have a 10 red one, and I believe a 50 was in a recent set lot for sale this fall. Those are the only three red ones that I am aware of/ or seen. *Stand Corrected. Make that 4 red Lajoies. Beautiful E98s Jtschantz!
There are many collectors who I'm sure have some really nice E98s in their colections that we just don't know about. Take John's for instance from his childhood.(Love the Mack!)
Rob A. probably knows more than anyone on these from the fact that he collected so many from years ago.
I have to admit, there are still a few color/player combinations that I have never seen come up for sale which will make my quest even more difficult, but that's the fun in it!
Anyways, I have all four of my color sets on the SGC Registry if you are ever bored and wanted to check them out. SOme of them aren't the highest of grade, but hopefully, you'll enjoy the Old Put Backs.
Oh, and check out Pete C's set on there too. It has some really high grades for E98s. Bob has a few sets on there too, but I'm not sure if he has scans.
Enjoy.
Tim Kindler

[cfc1909]

I know we all regret selling cards but that 40 red Lajoie could not have found a better home.

Great cards Rob.

[tbob]

I may be mistaken but I think that red Lajoie PSA 1 shown above was one of the cards sold on ebay one morning a few years ago which had beautiful fronts but extraneous tape on the back above and below the writing. I didn't find them that day until the Lajoie and 4 or 5 others had sold but was able to score about 6-7 color variations which had beautiful fronts and the thin tape running across the front and bottom edge margins on the back. The prices for the cards (all BINs) was super. I'd like to see some more lots like that one hit ebay some day.

[Harford20]

TBob, that eBay lot started my E98 quest. I picked up my first E98, Frank Chance Red Background, and have now been working on a red background set. I picked up my seventh card with the Goodwin auction this week--Chief Bender now joins my "tiny" run of 6 red background E98's. I remember pausing at the Lajoie Red Background, as I hit these seconds after they were listed. My budget would not allow two purchases, and Chance was the lesser price. If I knew now what I knew then, I would already have my Red Lajoie and not be cursing this thread.
Dave

[shammus]

Bob, did you ever complete an e98 Master set yourself?