Right now...it's a great time to buy.....

ullmandds wrote:Really? E103's seem kinda expensive to me these days as I've been looking to replace a type I recently traded?!?!?!

Hi Pete. Still at the upper tier of caramel pricing due to their rarity, but far lower in price than what they had been.
Other than Matty, Cobb, and Wags who are down in price as well the other hof's are really affordable now.

e103's have come down a ton compared to a few years ago. I don't think they are as rare as initially perceived.

"I don't think they are as rare as initially perceived."

I think the above can be applied to many issues that seem to come out of the woodworks in quantities every now and then...ie T213-I, T216...many caramel issues ie e92 crofts candy and cocoa,

I think that's part of what drove the caramel maniq of a bunch of years ago...the "perceived" rarity of many of those sets.

Bicem wrote: I don't think they are as rare as initially perceived.

Agreed. I was only considering their rarity when compared to most other popular "E" issues that have come way down in price as well such as E90-1's, E92's, E93's, E95's, etc which are much more plentiful than E103's.

ullmandds wrote:"I don't think they are as rare as initially perceived."

I think the above can be applied to many issues that seem to come out of the woodworks in quantities every now and then...ie T213-I, T216...many caramel issues ie e92 crofts candy and cocoa,

I think that's part of what drove the caramel maniq of a bunch of years ago...the "perceived" rarity of many of those sets.

(At the risk of sounding like an E-card defender all the time, I'll throw a few thoughts out...)

It is a bit difficult to comment on this because I'm not sure I know what the "perceived rarity" was of certain issues. But I'm not sure what we have today is really a supply issue in the sense that the cards exist in higher populations than people believed before. My sense of it is that the pricing declines have more to do with lower demand.

Many of these E-card issues are still pretty darn scarce. Pete, you mention Croft's Cocoa - I have the Bender (white hat) from that set. It remains the only 1 example of that card graded by PSA. There are 4 of Bender's striped hat slabbed in all grades. A HOFer with two cards in the set - only 5 total examples by PSA. I think that is still really scarce. But the demand is likely quite a bit less for these than was the case in 2007.

And then there's condition scarcity, where the E-cards (except 1915 CJ) have it way ahead of most T-card issues (except Louisiana issues). By the time you have an E-card in higher than VG grade you are into very, very low populations. With a T206 in that grade you are likely in the bottom 25%.

For the type collectors out there, maybe is seems easier today to acquire *a* card from a tough set. Again, I think that is more a demand issue than rising populations (notwithstanding that there have been some pretty cool finds lately with a lot of tough cards in them).

Now maybe by supply, some people think more of cards on the market than total population. In that sense, maybe "supply" is rising as more cards come out of collections and are offered for sale. But again, my feeling (that's all it is) is that the price declines are more a result of sluggish demand. I think that in a hot market, the avaialble supply of these scarce cards would be absorbed quickly at high prices.

These thoughts are more random than I intended, but I'm supposed to be working right now... .