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.

SGC has only ever graded 19 total examples of this 1909 Ramly T204, with only twelve receiving a higher grade than the Fair 1.5 offered here of Washington third baseman Bill Shipke.

The centering is just a hair east and north on the canvas, but looks nice overall, helping the eye appeal as much as the grade. There is some very light edge wear and chipping that is so common with the set's gold borders, particularly in the soft, rounded corners. Multiple surface abrasions appear within the portrait area, particularly in the top half, but Shipke's image is still visible. Some creasing exists in the top left and bottom right corners, helping to further explain the card's technical grade. The reverse is surprisingly clean for the grade, with only some faint soiling around the edges. 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.