The fifth finest example extant! There are but a handful of cards in our hobby that can be identified by color alone. Wagner's historic "yellow one" comes first to mind. Cobb's enchanted "green one," a close second. Gehrig's eternal "blue one" is another, or two, actually, but arguably more enchanting than all of these combined is the "purple one," the purple Shoeless Joe, the E90-1 American Caramel Joe Jackson rookie. How perfectly appropriate that the rookie card of America's original tragic sports hero be hued in plum, for purple is the color not just of majesty, as the song says, but of nobility and royalty, of the spirit and the sublime, of transcendence and of romanticism, all the key ingredients in the sugary sweet American pie mix of hero worship. Jackson was majestic, indeed! In 1911 he batted .408 and led the league in on-base percentage (.468). The next year, he batted .395 and led the league in hits (226), triples (26), and total bases (331). In 1913, his average cooled a bit to .373, again leading the league in hits (197), as well as doubles (39), slugging (.551), OPS (1.011), runs created (133), and times on base (282). Incredibly, Jackson's impressive numbers from 1913 are not nearly as impressive as the statistics of his previous two years, his first in the majors. What we so often forget in the mythologizing of "Shoeless Joe" is that 1911, the year he batted .408, the first of his three great seasons detailed above, was, by today's standards, his rookie season. An illiterate mill worker from Pickens, South Carolina, he'd come up to Philadelphia in 1908 and played in just 10 total games before Connie Mack traded him to Cleveland in 1910. In his first season with the Naps, he played in an additional 20 games, bringing his total career major league at-bats tally up to 115, which is 15 short of the maximum 130 plate appearances now stipulated by MLB to determine rookie status. So you see, 1911, the year the offered E90-1 American Caramel card came into existence, the year Joe hit .408 (the sixth highest season average ever,), really was Joe's rookie season. And what a truly majestic sight he must have been! He wielded a 36-inch, 48-ounce club affectionately named "Black Betsy" and in 1919 struck out just 10 times. Just 10 times! Babe Ruth himself modeled his style after Jackson's because, quote: "he was the greatest hitter I had ever seen, the greatest natural hitter I ever saw. He's the guy who made me a hitter." So Jackson was clearly majestic, sure, but to call him noble or even royal, however, is neither accurate nor fair. Joe was an illiterate country "rube" whose alleged complicity in the 1919 Black Sox scandal was, at worst, something like the complicity of the entire baseball world in the steroids scandal of the late 1990s. Everyone, from the owners and managers down to the coaches, trainers, and players had an idea of what was going on, but they did nothing, said nothing. For Joe's part, all he did in the 1919 World Series was play error-less ball and hit .375 with 12 hits, leading both teams in both categories. He would later admit under oath to agreeing to participate in the fix, and he would of course be banned from baseball for his alleged complicity, giving rise to the great American tragedy we so fondly remember today as "Shoeless Joe." Proudly offered here is one of the single finest examples of Jackson's 1909-11 E90-1 American Caramel rookie card in existence. Rigorously if not conservatively graded SGC 70 EX+ 5.5, there are none like it at either SGC or PSA, and there are only two finer examples on record at each grading firm, two PSA 8s, and one SGC 6 and one SGC 7. Very strongly encouraged, this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to acquire true cardboard royalty in the form of the fifth finest Shoeless Joe Jackson rookie in existence. Rest assured, the other four, which may or may not be as desirable as this one, are well secured in the world's very finest private collections, and they certainly won't be coming out of hiding anytime soon. Moreover, with just 3 examples in the EX 5 tier at each SGC and PSA, and with no competing EX+ 5.5 examples on record at either firm, this really is the fifth (or better) finest example known to exist. EX+ to EX/MT or better corners join NM or better edges around a brilliantly registered image that noticeably favors the right border but to a degree that still affords the piece the feel of a fairly equidistant frame. While both surfaces are completely 100% free of any unusual stains, paper loss, or other aberrant stock imperfections, the most impressive feature is unquestionably its tremendously accurate and noticeably bold registration, particularly in the area of Joe's face. A perfect precision of the all important registration of his red lips joins a noticeably bold and accurate impression all throughout to render a virtually unimprovable image of the young rookie, resting at ease against "Black Betsy," an image that exudes a clean and appealing boyishness, as opposed to the oftentimes ugly images rendered by inaccurate registration on so many other surviving examples. True cardboard royalty! Purple caramel majesty! Very strongly encouraged, this "purple one" is simply the best there is available.