19th Century Sets Scarcity ranking

The only red one that I have seen was in the OJ book.

Not sure if I've ever seen a red/blue mounted N173. They're so rare that I forgot they even existed!

Speaking of rare cabinets, how about the black bordered Kalamazoo Bats team cabinets? Apparently only 5 are known to exist in total. This Detroit example was a recent discovery and sold in a 2007 Mastro auction:

Ben - I think that there are more than 5 examples known to exist.

rman444 wrote:Ben - I think that there are more than 5 examples known to exist.

Oops, I worded that poorly. I meant that there are 5 teams on the checklist....the Detroit cabinet was the most recent addition.

Here's another Kbats cabinet:

Question:

Aren't OJ's more rare (on a player to player basis) than N28's? I have 100+ pop reports on PSA for N28's. Therefore, I'd move them to the "very easy" category. OJ's have pops closer to N29's (approx. 40 cards of each player) So I'd probably flip the n172's with the n28's...

There are two major issues missing from the list: N162 Goodwin & N284 Buchners

Jamie,

I would agree on a player-to-player basis that OJs are tougher than N28s, but if you are just trying to get one card from each set, I would say that OJ's are easier just due to the sheer size of the set in comparison to N28's. OJ's have thousands of different cards, as opposed to only ten for N28.

Is the Goodwin Champions set missing from the list? I just got home from work and am very tired, so maybe I'm just missing it, but I looked a couple of times before posting this ... but I just don't see it.

is my Newsboy Griffin cabinet.

This is a scan (albeit a poor one) of my Newsboy Griffin. I would rank them in the difficult to very difficult range. Jeremy

Illini-guy,

It's a philosophical disagreement, but I would rate scarcity based on the average pop of an individual player vs the whole set, since that is more likely to dictate price.

On a side note, it strike me as a total misnomer when the N28 is considered just baseball when in reality it's a multsport set. The non-baseball players are totally undervalued IMO, Nd I have tried to acquire high grade examples a couple times but never came down with one.

Actually, overall rarity of the set is more likely to dictate price than scarcity of individual players. With 19c sets, most people who aren't looking for HOFers are looking for type cards or certain teams. This very much the case with OJ which makes it much easier to find what you are looking for.

California OJs are certainly desirable to OJ set collectors, and their pop is 1/1. The fact they go or 100k+ supports my argument, to the extreme degree, though many lower pop OJ's I believe carry a significant premium as well. We can agree to disagree, but I see OJ commons go for $100 or so in poor condition while the N28's in poor condition are more like $50. My explanation for this is that the OJ commons are more scarce, hence the price discrepancy.

Jamie,

I would say that the N172's - true commons in poor condition - go for more than similarly conditioned N28s because there is a higher demand for the OJ's than N28's. The N172 set is the T206 of the nineteenth century and is collected much more widely than N28's will ever be. Another way to look at this - Old Judges sell for more than their Buchner counterparts, but I don't believe that means that they are tougher to find than Buchner's, just more popular.

It is a philosophical, "point of view" difference of opinions, and I can certainly understand your viewpoint on the matter. If others agree with you, I would certainly flip-flop them; I just like the discussion this thread has started.

I have no idea how I managed to forget the N162 and Buchner sets either. I will add them in there. Feel free to chime in if you disagree with my placement!

Ben, The Gypsy Queen California League card has been depicted in the SCD for many years, but you will have to look in the Minor League section for it! It is a pretty cool card and the wavy style writing is found on many Gypsy Queen actresses as well and he was probably merely a throw-in with them as opposed to a new set due to the similarities. The real question is were there more Cal League subjects produced at the same time as Mr. McDonald and just didn't survive the passage of time?
-Rhett

This has been an interesting thread, thanks to all who have posted.

A few other 19th century sets that haven't yet been ranked on page 1:

-Scrapps Die Cuts

-Number 7 Cigar