Mike Mitchell E90-1 rarity

[spec]

Years ago, Ted Zanidakis did some ground-breaking research on E90-1s that suggested the set was issued in series of, I believe, 30 cards. Since no evidence of the Mike Mitchell card being withdrawn has surfaced, it's natural to suspect Mitchell is no scarcer than the other cards in that series. I paid a high price for my e90-1 Mike Mitchell more than 30 years ago since it was tough to find and I'm happy to have it today even though it might not be the rarity I thought it was at the time.

[big-six]

Beautiful card!

[t206fanatic]

The PSA set registry rates the card only behind Joe Jax, which as other posters have said has to be a legacy rating.

[Baseball Rarities]

The 1979 edition of The Sports Collectors Bible priced E90-1 commons at $4 to $6 and only listed 5 cards on their own - Mitchell ($85-$125), Speaker ($50-$60), Graham ($10-$15), Sweeney ($20-$30) and Walsh ($20-$30).

The 1980 edition of Dr. Jim Beckett's Baseball Card Price Guide makes note in its E90-1 section that these same five cards are the most difficult in the set and assigns them similar prices as above. It actually lists prices for all 120 cards in the set. Of particular interest, the Jackson card is listed at $20 in "MINT" condition.

I assume that both publications relied heavily on Rich Egan's opinion at the time. He was the E-card guru back in the day and kept detailed notes on all of the sets.

The Early Gum and and Candy edition of Lew Lipset's Encyclopedia of Baseball Cards came out in 1984 and went through all of the "E" sets in detail. Again, the most expensive cards in the set were Mitchell ($400), Speaker ($125), Graham ($200), Sweeney ($250) and Walsh ($125) along with Duffy ($150) and Clarke Pitts. ($125). Jackson was listed at $75. It is amazing the amount of information that Lipset's Encyclopedia had at the time, long before the internet.

I put most of my set together through auctions in The Trader Speaks and shows back in the day and paid a big premium for Mitchell at the time.

[puckpaul]

It still seems a bit odd to me, old e 90-1 set collectors couldn’t have found it easy to find those other similarly tough cards. Or maybe more Mitchell’s have been graded due to the history. We’ll see more over time. Seems similar to the T207s, where there are many, many tough cards and not just the Lewis.

Sure wish the Joe Jax card wasn’t so ugly, i might have bought that one instead!

[Leon]

Of some interest to this thread....I don'[t think I have read all of the notes

Handbook To US Early Candy and Gum Cards" - Egan, 1969

https://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=144460

Originally Posted by Baseball Rarities

The 1979 edition of The Sports Collectors Bible priced E90-1 commons at $4 to $6 and only listed 5 cards on their own - Mitchell ($85-$125), Speaker ($50-$60), Graham ($10-$15), Sweeney ($20-$30) and Walsh ($20-$30).

The 1980 edition of Dr. Jim Beckett's Baseball Card Price Guide makes note in its E90-1 section that these same five cards are the most difficult in the set and assigns them similar prices as above. It actually lists prices for all 120 cards in the set. Of particular interest, the Jackson card is listed at $20 in "MINT" condition.

I assume that both publications relied heavily on Rich Egan's opinion at the time. He was the E-card guru back in the day and kept detailed notes on all of the sets.

The Early Gum and and Candy edition of Lew Lipset's Encyclopedia of Baseball Cards came out in 1984 and went through all of the "E" sets in detail. Again, the most expensive cards in the set were Mitchell ($400), Speaker ($125), Graham ($200), Sweeney ($250) and Walsh ($125) along with Duffy ($150) and Clarke Pitts. ($125). Jackson was listed at $75. It is amazing the amount of information that Lipset's Encyclopedia had at the time, long before the internet.

I put most of my set together through auctions in The Trader Speaks and shows back in the day and paid a big premium for Mitchell at the time.

[Vintagecatcher]

I was very fortunate to pick up this E90-1 Peaches Graham a few years back.
Luckily it was poorly listed, and sold for a great price, which I was more than happy to pay.

Patrick

[brianp-beme]

Patrick, great looking Graham...one of my favorite cards in the set.

Brian

[edhans]

Originally Posted by spec

Years ago, Ted Zanidakis did some ground-breaking research on E90-1s that suggested the set was issued in series of, I believe, 30 cards. Since no evidence of the Mike Mitchell card being withdrawn has surfaced, it's natural to suspect Mitchell is no scarcer than the other cards in that series. I paid a high price for my e90-1 Mike Mitchell more than 30 years ago since it was tough to find and I'm happy to have it today even though it might not be the rarity I thought it was at the time.

I've corresponded with Ted about E90-1 for decades. I've told him that there's no way E90-1 can be thought of as four 30 card series. There were surely more than four "printings", with replacements, short prints and double prints. Not sure if he believes me or not; but there are way too many levels of scarcity for this to be accurate. I do agree that Mitchell is not quite as scarce as was believed 30 or so years ago, but it's still damn tough. It isn't close to comparable to the thirtieth most difficult subject, over even the twentieth or tenth most difficult. Or for that matter even the fifth. It is tougher then Sweeney, Graham, Walsh, etc. The only subjects that may be roughly equivalent, in my view, are Speaker, Stahl, Duffy and Dougherty.

[Yoda]

Lew once told me he thought the Speaker was as rare as the Mitchell.

[puckpaul]

And the Speaker is one of the best looking cards in the set and one of my favorite cards period. Luckily i did buy one a while ago. So many great looking cards in the set.

Would love to take a crack at completing the set, but the Jackson…i dont know if that will happen now.