A budget-minded build of the most exciting baseball card set ever made.

I’m kicking myself for not having started this set earlier. I remember dismissing the set thinking that I’d get farther ahead as a collector and investor if I worked on other sets. But now that I’ve dabbled a little, I’m hooked and now the hunt is even more difficult. This is an exciting set for a number of reasons. The set was built during world war one, it includes some of the most prized examples of rare editions of player cards, and since a bulk of the production run was inserted into boxes of molasses-covered popcorn, clean examples are hard to come-by. The hunt for low-mid range quality cards is tough enough due to the age and the rampant staining from the molasses from the cracker jack candy plaguing almost half the available offerings. I don’t mind the staining, it provides tons of character and an imbued pedigree, but even low-mid range cards are still USD$300 and up, ungraded, and starting at USD$500 minimum for PSA graded examples. There are a few cards that will be a potential barrier for completion due the incredible cost; Ty Cobb, Shoeless Joe Jackson, Christy Methewson, Honus Wagner, Walter Johnson and a few others, with low grade cards ranging from USD$5,000 to USD$20,000. Gulp.