Pre-War Cards

The popular candy card set has five horizontal cards in it — how do they stack up against each other?

One of the things the T206 set is known for are its six horizontal cards. But horizontals are found in other sets, too, and that includes the popular E90-1 American Caramel set.

Specifically, E90-1 has five horizontal cards in it and, like the ones in T206, there’s usually a premium associated with them.

The two big ones undoubtedly are for Hall of Famers Addie Joss and Willie Keeler. The cards aren’t only important because of their Cooperstown inductions. Both are somewhat rare and that has helped their values, too.

Neither is impossible to find but with fewer than 40 PSA copies of each, collectors can have some difficulty tracking them down.

Keeler’s card is particularly attractive with a bright red background. Joss’ card, however, is, um, less so. Without going into too much detail here, the card of Joss is sort of a train wreck. Everything from the bright red lips to the amateurish picture of his face is really wrong.

That hasn’t stopped collectors from buying it. Both cards, in fact, are very desirable and, even in low-grade condition, it is hard to find them for much under $175-$200.

Of note with both Keeler and Joss is that they also are among the few players that have more than one card in the set. Joss also has a portrait card while Keeler has two portraits — one with a pink background and a second with a red background. Keeler’s three card are the most of anyone in the set.

After those two, there’s a noticeable dropoff in terms of desirability. The next key horizontal in the set is that of outfielder Johnny Siegle.

Siegle’s name is actually misspelled on his card as ‘Seigle’ and that isn’t the only strange thing about it. As I recently wrote, the more perplexing aspect is that Siegle did not even appear in a major league game after 1906 and this set is believed to have been issued from 1909-11. Siegle did play professional baseball when the set was produced as he was in the minor leagues. But he is depicted as a major league player on the card.

Siegle was a fairly consequential player so why is his card a notable one? Mostly because of its rarity. To date, PSA has graded only 18 of his cards — a number that is significantly fewer than most of the others found in the set.

Like the cards of Keeler and Joss, his card isn’t altogether impossible to find. But you will see it sell for $40-$50, even low-grade condition because it is a relatively tough one.

The final two horizontals are those of Charley Hall and Buster Brown. While neither are exceptionally rare, they are a little tougher than the most common commons in the set.

To me, Brown’s has always seemed to be the slightly more desirable of the two. That could be because of his name, which was the same one of the popular shoe company. It also could be because Brown is the only one shown wielding a bat. Whatever the case, his card seems to be a smidge more desirable.

That isn’t true for everyone, though. Some collectors that study this set have insisted the Hall card is a rarer one and, the population reports kind of bear that out. To date, PSA and SGC have combined to grade 81 Brown cards while grading only 75 Hall cards. But the numbers are so close that they should probably be considered equals in terms of rarity.

You might notice, too, that Hall’s card looks familiar. It’s not a dead ringer for the card of Addie Joss but it is certainly a similar image.

Both Brown’s and Hall’s cards usually start around $30-$35 or so in low-grade condition — a bit more than the $20-$25 you’ll pay for the easiest commons in the set in the same type of condition.

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