Revisting E98's in today's market

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Posted By: Dave F

I got within the last four cards of the set last year, but lacked Cobb, Walsh, and a couple commons. I got frustrated, I was also at the end of my rope at that point money wise. I sold them all, lost LOTS of money. But dumb me, I'm starting to get the itch again to go after this small set of colorful ametuer looking cards. I haven't really even kept up with the prices of e98's too much, although from what I've seen they still seem to be down as does everything else. Is now the best possible time to try this set again? When I was buying I was paying $100-125 easy for the commons in SGC 10's...


Haven't made up my mind yet. Perhaps the urge will be gone tomorrow, perhaps not.

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Posted By: george gogol

In tonight's "19th Century Only" auction, several low tier HOF'ers did not sell for their min. bids of $125.00, they were all in SGC 10 holders. Commons had a min. bid of $100.00 and did not sell. I was very surprised that these cards did not sell and several were from Lionel Carter's collection.

The time is now. Jump back in and collect this fantastic set!

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Posted By: Tim

I had interest in one of the Carter cards that did not sell but unfortunatly I was tied up with several other lots and couldn't bid on them all. I ended up being the under bidder on everything I was after and wish now I had focused on that one.

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Posted By: barrysloate

I've had pretty good success selling E98's and I think nice looking examples are still pretty strong. But the whole off-condition market seems to be down, so in SGC 10-20 you can probably get some good deals.

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Posted By: Bob

One thing to remember is that no cards fluctuate within their grade like the SGC 10s. You can have a card with a beautiful front but some back damamge which is a 10 or a horribly mutilated, but original, card which is also a 10. Some collectors don't mind a little back damage and are able to consider their purchaes an absolute steal while others want the integrity of the card with nothing missing, even on the back, and thus would prefer a horribly mangled, but complete, card.
I know that in the E98 series, SGC is brutal on paper loss, even if it is slight and also enamel chips from the front borders, so you can get a really nice card in an SGC 10 or 20 holder that snyone would be proud to own. Factor in that and, with the exception of Scott M.'s "green ghosts," the highest graded of many of these E98s are 60s and 50s, and you'll see that the difference between a highly graded card and a lower graded card isn't as profound as in the tobacco card sets.
The higher graded E98s seem to pretty much be in collections now but you can still pick up some nice ones at auction or on ebay at reasonable prices, at least compared to a year ago. The E94s, on the other hand, have held their value much more than the E93, E95, E96, E97 and E98.

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Posted By: Anthony S.

Dave,

The fact that I just bought my first 3 e98s last weekend with eye toward possibly pursuing the set has nothing to do with my recommendation that right now would be a horrible time for you to re-enter the e98 market. e98's are like Bret Saberhagen, best in odd numbered years.

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Posted By: leon

I think the prices are a little soft for the lower (collector) grade E98's, as they are in other sets too. A few holdings of these have come to market recently as did the E90-3's did a few years ago. (though not quite to that extent) and it seems like they aren't quite as scarce as they used to be. I just added this Lionel Carter- E98 Matty to my collection because I thought it was a good price and I have wanted this pose for a while. It previously resided in an SGC 10 holder... and they might get to put a holder back around it, to protect it from me... I always liked the pose just not the prices they had been bringing...



edited gramma

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Posted By: peter ullman

nice cards...I agree w/you leon...I've wanted that pose too...but the prices were absurd for a while! Someday...I'll have 1 or 2...the different background colors are ALL so nice!