T204 Ramly Cigarettes cards of 1909 feature a beautiful black-and-white
portrait of each player encircled in an ornate border with
the player's name, position, and team affiliation printed at the bottom.
The cards, which are embossed and highlighted with gold ink, are extremely condition-sensitive because they are
printed on flimsy paper. The gold borders are also very
susceptible to chipping, as is the case with most gold-bordered cards.
Between the outstanding player selection and the overall beauty of the
issue, higher-grade examples from the set are extremely pricey, making
affordable specimens tough to find.
PSA has only ever graded 15 total examples of this 1909 Ramly T204 of Chicago pitcher Jack Pfeister.
Centering is slightly east and north on the canvas. There
is some edge wear and chipping that is so common
with the set's gold
borders, particularly noticeable in the corners and along the right
edge. There is some soiling near the nameplate, along with some surface abrasions and paper loss in the portrait area. Luckily, most of those defects miss Pfeister, himself, as his image remains bright and clean. The reverse is extremely clean, with almost no
soiling of note - only a couple small spots along the left edge. Soiling is not
unusual for these
cards,
where the
embossing can act like a dust magnet.
Attractive Ramlys are among the
most beautiful cards in the hobby, but
the eye appeal of the issue can sometimes suffer in the lower grades. The scarcity of this issue far outweighs any perceived cosmetic flaws on this example.