E98 (more discussion)

[Rob D.]

Originally Posted by caramelcard

I think I saw there were no Lajoie cards in the group.

That's probably because Lajoie was the most popular card for this owner being from Ohio. He gave them all away or had them in his store/shop. (Not sure if this has already been mentioned.)

Rob,

Not sure I agree -- at least 100 percent.

Bob M. long has said that the red Lajoie is one of the tougher E98s. If that card -- outside of this find -- could be found in the same numbers as other reds, then I would agree with your theory. But if a red Lajoie was indeed a scarcity before this find, it would make sense that there wouldn't be a lot of them in this group. (Although the fact that there wasn't at least one strikes me as odd. It is certainly possible that the original owner didn't have as many Lajoies to begin with.)

Hope this makes sense. It's definitely fun to speculate.

Rob

[marcdelpercio]

Perhaps it's a combination of the region and player that makes certain colored cards scarce. For example, say for whatever reason that a high quantity of the red cards went to the Ohio area and that these were distributed as a premium. Naturally, Lajoie would be the first card that every kid would want to choose, trade, handle, etc and this led to a much greater percentage of red Lajoies having been long since lost or obliterated, while the stacks of the less popular regional players wouldn't get nearly the same demand and attention.

[caramelcard]

I don't think any cards were produced in lesser numbers. It's very unlikely since they were probably all printed in equal numbers.

I think it's popularity that makes some cards scarce. And, there are several aspects to this.

Common players like Dahlen, Vaughn, and Tenny might be more scarce because less folks held onto them. We see a ton of Cobbs and Wagners because they were already stars at the time and more people would stash them away.

On the flipside (as marc brings up above), certain player/color combos might've been more popular depending on where these groups of cards were distributed.

Cards like Mack that are semi tough might not have been even close to as interesting to consumers of the day as they are to us.

There are a lot of variables since it's possible this issue was available to retailers all over the region, but this find might shed some light on why certain cards are tough to find.

Barry, I agree that the set is most likely not a candy set. Of course, the only additional info we have is the Old Put stamp which makes it a tobacco set.

I think it's most likely a catch all issue that was used to support different products.

We have seen orange stains on several cards which complicates things a bit. The only reason I can think of that the cards would be stained is if they were enclosed with a candy that got a bit too hot.

For a while, I thought it was possible that only certain colors were sent to certain regions or that one color would be used for one product. (Old Puts support this theory). But, this find changes my thinking on that.


Rob

[Rob D.]

If we accept that there are more Cobbs and Wagners available today compared with Dahlen, Vaughn, etc., because Cobb and Wagner were popular players at the time and more people wanted them (which I agree with), then I'm not sure we can accept that the red Lajoie is scarce because more of them were handed out, and those cards subsequently were lost, destroyed, etc.

[Jaybird]

I agree, Rob. Can't have it both ways. Either they were handed out and cherished or handed out and thrown away. Lajoie was a big enough star that he would have been cherished (Especially in Ohio) along the same lines as Cobb and Wagner.

But, I think it odd to think it was short-printed either.

Maybe we find a newspaper article where the Lajoie was a redemption prize. Collect all the cards and turn them in and get a Lajoie. Or an intentional chase card that was printed but not distributed in as high a number? Many theories. Perhaps an article or ad some day will reveal the answer?

[caramelcard]

We can have it both ways if these cards were more prevalent in Ohio.

Edited to add: I see what you guys mean. Yup. you're right.

When I was collecting my master set, I personally never found Lajoie to be difficult to find, but I respect the opinions of others who have...

Rob

[Jaybird]

I don't get it. If they were more prevalent in Ohio, then the people would be holding onto their Lajoies and they would be in old timer's collections, right? Why would the Cobbs and Wagners survive and not the Lajoies if they were more prevalent in Ohio?

[glchen]

I think the Lajoies were handed out first, and the reason why there aren't more is simply that they were lost in time, e.g., as with anything that's ~100 years old, they became well worn and eventually tossed out since no one then knew that baseball cards would have any value.

Does anyone know how Heritage is selling all of the duplicates (e.g, the 40 odd Wagner's and so forth)? It would seem to be better that Heritage slowly sells the dups instead of dumping them all on the market, but who knows. Now that people know that there are all of these high grade cards from this find out there, it may depress prices until they are all sold. Who knows? I, for one, think it would be nice to pick up a Wagner or a Cobb from this find, but I wouldn't know if it'd be better to try to pick one up early or wait until the market settles down.