The 1922 E121 American Caramel Series of 120 is one of the most significant productions from the Golden Age of Baseball. The series offers over 30 Hall of Famers, including some of the greatest figures that bridged the most crucial and transformative period in the game’s history, when “small ball” gave way to the "long ball" at the dawn of the Roaring Twenties. Ruth, Cobb, Hornsby, Collins, Alexander, Speaker, Sisler and many others stars make appearances, some with multiple variations.
SCP Auctions is honored to present here the all-time finest PSA graded 1922 American Caramel E121 assemblage. This newly-surfaced near set (103/125, 82.4%) sat dormant and intact for almost 30 years after it was purchased from Sotheby’s famed Copeland Collection auction in 1991. As any advanced collector will attest, an E121 set such as this appearing in this near-complete form is nothing short of miraculous. Typically, a steadfast commitment of time and significant resources is required to assemble a set of this caliber, and only attainable on a card-by-card basis. Even then, only a handful of collectors have even come close to the offered compilation. At the direction of SCP Auctions, this set was recently graded all at once and entered on the PSA Set Registry (‘SCP Auctions Spring 2019’), easily surpassing the previous high set rating of 4.10 to achieve the highly coveted "#1 Current Finest" position. There is even greater separation when Weighted GPA (4.94 to 3.87) and GPA with Top Pop Bonuses (5.66 to 4.10) are considered. A mind-blowing 28 cards stand alone as the highest graded (1 of 1) examples in the PSA pop report, with a total of 46 top-rated cards overall. Two of the three Ruth’s are included (‘Holding Bird’ and ‘Photo Montage’) as well as one of the two Cobb versions. Five cards have earned a near impossible NM 7 status.
Hall of Famers include; G.C. Alexander (EX-MT 6), Dave Bancroft (VG-EX 4), Ty Cobb/Batting (EX-MT 6), Urban Faber (EX 5), Frank Frisch (EX-MT+ 6.5), Jess Haines (EX-MT 6), Harry Heilmann/Correct (VG-EX 4), Harry Hooper (VG-EX 4), Rogers Hornsby/O.F. (EX-MT 6), Waite Hoyt (VG-EX+ 4.5), Miller Huggins (NM 7), Rabbit Maranville (VG-EX 4), John J. McGraw (NM 7), Eppa J. Rixey (VG-EX 4), Wilbert Robinson (VG-EX+ 4.5), Ed Roush (EX 5), Babe Ruth/Photo Montage With Quotes (VG-EX 4), Babe Ruth/Holding Bird With Quotes (EX 5), Ray Schalk/Catching (EX 5), Joe Sewell (EX-MT 6), George Sisler/Batting (EX-MT 6), Bill Southworth (EX 5), Zach Wheat (EX-MT 6), Ross Young/Youngs (VG-EX+ 4.5).
Since acquiring the set from the 1991 Copeland sale, the collector of this ground-breaking set kept each card virtually untouched in individual sleeves within a large spiral-bound binder. The remarkable EX preservation is unlike anything encountered before and likely ever to come, contradicting the acceptable norm of most candy-based cards from that era typically found in poor condition due to abuse from rowdy, sweet-toothed boys.
Click here to view the set on the PSA Set Registry: #1 Set All-Time
Click here to view recent Forbes article by David Seideman: https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidseideman/2019/04/26/lucky-collector-kept-75k-candy-card-set-with-ty-cobb-and-babe-ruth-in-cheap-binder-for-28-years/#1398d7957fc8