Love of the Game Auctions - 10th Anniversary Auction

30. 1910 E98 Honus Wagner (HOF - Blue Background) - SGC GOOD 2

31. 1910 E98 Honus Wagner (HOF - Orange) - SGC VG 3

Prior to the discovery of the “Black Swamp Find” of E98 cards several years ago, cards from the issue were considered somewhat difficult to obtain, the condition-sensitive cards typically found in low grades with weak eye appeal. Visually-pleasing examples that had been “circulated” among collectors in their year of issue were highly desirable. Though the Black Swamp Find has dramatically increased the population of high-grade E98 cards in the hobby, those “circulated” examples remain popular and highly prized among advanced collectors today. In the case of the Honus Wagner card from the set, Black Swamp examples seem to have been largely restricted to red and green- background examples. Orange and blue-background specimens remain in short supply, condition-sensitive, clearly “circulated” cards. We often express our opinion that “circulated” E98s and BSF E98s should almost be considered separate sets. Presented here is an attractive and well-centered blue-background example of Honus Wagner’s card from the E98 issue. Clean and attractive, the card has attained a grade of GOOD 2 by SGC, due largely to corner and edge wear, most visible at the top left and bottom-right of the card. Some mild staining is apparent on the reverse. An important card, one of the keys to the issue, with a tough- to-find blue background. MINIMUM BID: $500

E98 is one of five “sister sets” where the images were taken from a common pool of subjects, depending upon the desired makeup of the set. Anonymously issued, there are 30 E98’s in the checklist, which is handily shown on the reverse of each card. Each subject came in four different background colors and in addition to the orange seen here, green, red and blue backgrounds can be found. While the infamous Black Swamp find several years back skewed the populations and numbers of high grade cards in the set for certain players, orange was in short supply in the cache. While the SGC and PSA pop reports are a bit of a mess in terms of identifying the four backgrounds, the Orange Wagner seems to exist in very small numbers compared to the rest of the colors. The SGC 3 example seen here has retained its bright orange primary color and the secondary colors on Wagner proper are also quite pleasing, as are the wide borders. Corner rounding and a crease in the lower right corner are fairly unobtrusive, although there is a spot of paper loss on the reverse. Wagner remains one of the most popular players in the hobby, invariably inviting spirited bidding when his cards are offered.

MINIMUM BID: $1,000

10 TH ANNIVERSARY AUCTION − CLOSES NOVEMBER 26, 2022 33

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