Toughest 20th Century Pre-War Player to Collect?

paul · #1 01-07-2025, 11:59 AM

From the Negro Leagues, Willie Foster and Pete HIll.

bcbgcbrcb · #2 01-07-2025, 01:02 PM

Right on, Paul. Don�t forget Biz Mackey too, only one card known and only two or three examples at that.

oldjudge · #3 01-07-2025, 01:10 PM

Not 20th century, but almost, and Burkett as a player

sbfinley · #4 01-07-2025, 01:14 PM

I think the answer has to be Joe Jackson. I can�t think of a period card of him where the cheapest entry isn�t the low to mid 5 figures unless you can find a beat to hell T200. He�s arguably the key card in almost every set he�s in. I can remember years ago Leon had a Jackson game card (either Polo Grounds or National Game) on his website for a couple hundred bucks and a couple times when I made a purchase I thought about adding it but never did. Been kicking myself. Wagner, Ruth, and Cobb are all in the �you�re going to have to pay up� category but at they are in enough sets that if you have some options. With Jackson it�s game card/Play Ball or take out a second mortgage.

packs · #5 01-07-2025, 01:28 PM

I wonder how long the Joe Jackson and Wagner run up is here to stay though. I agree that under current conditions, Wagner and Jackson are very difficult to collect.

But will it sustain itself? I find it hard to believe that anyone will continue to spend thousands of dollars on Tom Barker game cards. It has a nice image but is akin to a deck of playing cards and I think was appropriately priced in the past. Even the E91 Hans Wagner card is selling for thousands of dollars. But how much sense does it make to pay thousands for a card with a generic image? The Joe Jackson blanket also has a generic image and sells for a reasonable price still.

When I say generic image I mean the image on your Hans Wagner card is the exact same image on Joe Tinker's card, except the team names have been changed.

Touch'EmAll · #6 01-07-2025, 02:08 PM

Some of Wagner's cards come with the name "Hans". Personally, I would rather own a Wagner card with printed name on card and slip label as "Honus".

packs · #7 01-07-2025, 02:28 PM

I could live with Hans as long as the image on the card depicted the player.

z28jd · #8 01-07-2025, 06:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Touch'EmAll

Some of Wagner's cards come with the name "Hans". Personally, I would rather own a Wagner card with printed name on card and slip label as "Honus".

If you search "Honus Wagner" on Newspapers dot com during his career, you will find 26,000 papers that call him Honus.

If you search "Hans Wagner" during that same time period, you will get 96,000 results.

So it should be more likely that you find a "Hans Wagner" item than a "Honus Wagner" item.

Post career until his death, Hans and Honus were basically used the same amount of times. Both coming in just over 80,000 examples. In reality, we should probably know him better as Hans Wagner, but from 1956 until now the usage is 140,000 Honus, 10,000 Hans, with many of them after the 1950s not being him.

bcbgcbrcb · #9 01-07-2025, 07:46 PM

Burkett has 3 20th Century cards, W600, T204 & Koester Bread.

bcbgcbrcb · #10 01-07-2025, 07:50 PM

I think you can still pick up a low-grade W514 or possibly even lower-grade M101-2 of Jackson for high 4-figures. Might not be the nicest looking example but you get what you pay for. I’ve also seen a trimmed down W601 of 1908/09 Philadelphia sell for mid 4-figures not too long ago.

brianp-beme · #11 01-07-2025, 08:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by z28jd

If you search "Honus Wagner" on Newspapers dot com during his career, you will find 26,000 papers that call him Honus.

If you search "Hans Wagner" during that same time period, you will get 96,000 results.

So it should be more likely that you find a "Hans Wagner" item than a "Honus Wagner" item.

Post career until his death, Hans and Honus were basically used the same amount of times. Both coming in just over 80,000 examples. In reality, we should probably know him better as Hans Wagner, but from 1956 until now the usage is 140,000 Honus, 10,000 Hans, with many of them after the 1950s not being him.

I can do either Honus or Hans...Wagner's given first name was Johannes, so the Hans nickname makes just as much sense as Honus, and perhaps even slightly more. What I object to is this!:

pc796cobbwagner.jpg

Brian (not my PC796 postcard, because I am obviously a Honus/Hans man...see above)

doug.goodman · #12 01-07-2025, 09:39 PM

m113 posters of Honus (released Sept 1909) and Hans (released Dec 1913)

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