The 1914 and 1915 Cracker Jack baseball card sets are some of the most iconic in the sports card hobby.
And in today's market, they can carry significant price tags...
Since they were printed on thin paper stock and distributed in boxes of the popular sugary, molasses-covered snack, finding examples that have survived in top condition is quite challenging.
Prices of some players' cards in high grade can easily fetch six-figure price tags.
But, even in rough shape, most any Cracker Jack card will have some good value to it.
Collectors adore the artwork and eye appeal.
And big-name baseball legends like Shoeless Joe Jackson, Ty Cobb, Christy Mathewson, Honus Wagner, and Walter Johnson always attract a following in this hobby.
Once you look through these sets and their checklists, it's easy to see why these cards are so sought-after.
And in this guide, we'll take a look at the 25 most valuable.
Let’s jump right in!1914 Cracker Jack #88 Christy Mathewson
Estimated PSA 3 VG Value: $130,000
Christy Mathewson's decline was sharp and sudden, with emphasis on the sharp.
Coming off a fourth-place MVP finish in 1913, the 33-year-old New York Giants starter saw his ERA jump by nearly a whole point to 3.00.
Mathewson remained a control artist, surrendering just 23 walks in 312 innings.
However, his work in the strike zone unmasked his declining stuff.
The Hall-of-Famer scattered 314 hits on the year with an MLB-worst 16 home runs and an NL-worst 104 earned runs.
By the end of the campaign, things made more sense.
Mathewson complained of a stabbing pain in his left side that rarely subsided with rest.
Looking for a muscle issue, doctors cleared Mathewson and chalked it up to advancing age.
The truth was much more insidious.
Seven years later, Mathewson was diagnosed with tuberculosis.
It's almost certain that the pain was caused by the disease, the same that led to his early death in late 1925.
1914 Cracker Jack #103 Shoeless Joe Jackson
Estimated PSA 3 VG Value: $60,000
Shoeless Joe Jackson picked an inconvenient time to ascend to baseball stardom.
The Cleveland Naps right fielder burst onto the American League scene in 1911 with a .408 average and MLB-best .468 on-base percentage.
If not for the almighty Ty Cobb, Jackson would have walked away with the league batting title.
The following two years were more of the same.
Jackson diced up AL pitching in both 1912 and 1913, only to finish runner-up to Cobb two more times.
Three swings, three misses.
"What a hell of a league this is," Jackson said. "I hit .387, .408, and .395 the last three years and I ain't won nothing yet!"
Jackson went into 1914 determined to get over the hump, yet his body had other ideas.
The 26-year-old missed 35 games due to a broken leg as the Naps plummetted to the AL cellar.
He ended the year tied for third in the batting race (.338), 30 points behind the always inevitable Cobb.
1915 Cracker Jack #103 Shoeless Joe Jackson
Estimated PSA 3 VG Value: $60,000
Even before the Black Sox scandal made him baseball's most wanted man, Shoeless Joe Jackson was an enigma.
Before the 1915 season, Jackson played chicken with the management of the newly rechristened Cleveland Indians.
The 27-year-old was having the time of his life as a vaudeville headliner and openly questioned whether baseball had anything left for him.
Furthermore, Jackson was rumored to be considering a move to the Federal League for more money.
Strapped for cash and staring down bankruptcy court, Indians owner Charles Somers panicked and shopped his superstar to every team he could.
The Indians finally pulled off a deal in August '15, shipping Jackson to the Chicago White Sox for needed funds and three players.
It was a move that would change the game forever.
Two years later, the White Sox won their second World Series championship.
Two seasons after that, the historic fix was in.
1914 Cracker Jack #30 Ty Cobb
Estimated PSA 3 VG Value: $50,000
Ty Cobb, the baseball player, towers alongside the immortals of Major League Baseball history.
Ty Cobb, the man?
That's a much trickier box to unpack.
The Detroit Tigers outfielder was well known for his fierce, no-remorse playing style and similar ways in the clubhouse.
There was no denying that Cobb had no equals as a hitter.
Yet, his teammates, competitors, and contemporaries often loathed him.
Off the field, Cobb was even more challenging to deal with.
In 1914, the 27-year-old center fielder collected his gun and stormed over to a local butcher to demand a refund for 20 cents of spoiled fish.
The butcher had allegedly turned his wife away.
Cobb raised hell and ended up assaulting the butcher's cousin.
The Hall-of-Famer broke his thumb during the incident and was ultimately slapped on the wrist after beating the man over the head with a gun.
Cobb's outburst did little to dispel things regarding his fiery image.
1914 Cracker Jack #68 Honus Wagner
Estimated PSA 3 VG Value: $20,000
It took 17 years for the cracks to finally show in Honus Wagner's game.
After 15 consecutive .300 seasons and eight batting titles, the 40-year-old Pittsburgh Pirates shortstop finally began to show his age in 1914.
Wagner's hawk-like eye at the plate was now a second behind, and his hands followed suit.
Wagner hit just .252 in 150 games, by far the worst average of his unprecedented career.
He also set career lows in on-base percentage (.317), OPS (.634), and OPS+ (93).
For the first and only time in an entire season, Wagner was a below-replacement-level player.
But "The Flying Dutchman" still had tread left on the wheels.
He stole over 20 bases (23) for a jaw-dropping 18th consecutive campaign while legging out nine triples and scoring 60 runs.
He also notched hit #3,000 on June 14th, becoming just the second player in history to reach that plateau.
1915 Cracker Jack #30 Ty Cobb
Estimated PSA 3 VG Value: $20,000
Many believed Ty Cobb was a mean guy.
But often overlooked was that he was also a fantastic businessman.
The Deadball Era claimed many victims, but Cobb wasn't one of them.
His otherwordly play gave him all the leverage in the world to play with, and he used it to demand hefty salary increases year after year.
Heading into the 1915 campaign, MLB's most feared hitter was on a streak of eight consecutive AL batting titles.
Concurrently, the Federal League was sniffing about in hopes of catching the biggest finish in the baseball pond.
It was always unlikely that Cobb would make the jump, but he still parlayed the uncertainty into more money in Detroit.
The Tigers' cash got the desired return.
Cobb paid out with his ninth consecutive batting title (.369) and Major
League bests in on-base percentage (.486), runs (144), hits (208), and stolen bases (96).
The Tigers finished second in the AL at 100-54-2, the franchise's first 100-win season and only until 1934.
1914 Cracker Jack #57 Walter Johnson
Estimated PSA 3 VG Value: $15,000
From 1910 to 1919, the Washington Senators were little better than a .500 team.
Finishing runner-up in the AL in two of those ten years, Washington posted an overall record of 755-737.
If it hadn't been for Walter Johnson, the Senators would have sunk from just above mediocre to the bottom of the baseball toilet.
Johnson posted a 265-143 record over that same ten-year stretch, good for 122 games over .500.
The rest of Washington's pitchers finished 104 games under.
It's no wonder why Johnson took home MVP honors in 1913, following up on top-five placements the previous two seasons.
The beat kept on in 1914.
The Hall-of-Fame righty led all of baseball with 51 appearances and topped the league in a bushel of stats, including wins (28), complete games (33), shutouts (an MLB-best nine), innings (371.2), strikeouts (225), and K/BB ratio (3.04).
Johnson also posted a sub-2.00 ERA (1.72) for the fifth consecutive season and seventh out of eight.
1915 Cracker Jack #68 Honus Wagner
Estimated PSA 3 VG Value: $13,500
The ageless Honus Wagner continued to put his stamp on the history books in 1915.
In 1914, Wagner notched hit #3,000 in an otherwise disappointing year. Many wondered if the 40-something Dutchman had anything left in him.
Well, he did.
Wagner hit just .274 in 1915, his second consecutive season below .300. and a far cry from his time as a batting title collector.
However, the underlying numbers showed a great player in defying Father Time.
The 41-year-old amassed 55 extra-base hits, including 32 doubles and 17 triples.
Wagner also stole 22 bases, scored 68 runs, and drove in 78.
It added up to a robust 127 OPS+, the best of his career's final half-decade.
He also set a remarkable record on July 29th, becoming the oldest player to hit a grand slam.
Even crazier, it was an inside-the-parker.
Wagner held the record for seven decades until 42-year-old Tony Perez topped him in 1985.
1915 Christy Mathewson
Estimated PSA 3 VG Value: $7,250
Besieged by undiagnosed tuberculosis and faced with constant pain, Christy Mathewson drug himself through the 1915 season with diminished results.
No longer a feared strikeout machine, the 34-year-old New York Giants righty strung together a pitching arsenal with chewing gum and wire.
After over a decade at the top of the Major League heap, Mathewson was no more than a less-than-replacement level starter playing out the string.
It was a sad sight to watch.
Mathewson ended the year at 8-14, his first losing season since 1902.
To be fair, the Giants were terrible.
New York posted a losing record for the first time since that same 1902 campaign, sinking to last place in the National League.
Still, Mathewson didn't have it.
His 3.58 ERA is his career nadir, and his 72 ERA+ placed him 28% below an average starter.
The combination of pain and age was too much, leading to Mathewson's retirement after a part-time stint in 1916.
1914 Cracker Jack #93 Del Pratt
Estimated PSA 3 VG Value: $7,000
Offensive stats from the "Deadball Era" are often unjustly equated to those of the current era.
In doing so, the brilliance of players like Del Pratt often slips through the cracks.
From 1912-1916, Del Pratt was at or near the top of the list for the best second basemen in baseball.
Over his first five years at the MLB level, Pratt steadily progressed as a defender while putting up gaudy numbers by era standards.
In 1914, the 26-year-old St. Louis Browns star led the Majors in games played (158), slashing .283/.341/.411 with a 130 OPS+.
He matched his career high with 37 stolen bases and went 30/10 in doubles (34) and triples (13) for the second straight campaign.
Pratt also drove in 65 while scoring 85, a rare combination in such a pitching-heavy time.
With few home runs being hit and 1-0 games the norm, the South Carolina native's first five MLB seasons stand as cruelly underrated gems.
1915 Cracker Jack #57 Walter Johnson
Estimated PSA 3 VG Value: $6,000
How many Cy Youngs would Walter Johnson have won if Cy Young wasn't his contemporary?
Roger Clemens holds the record with 7 Cys in his trophy case.
It's not out of line to think Johnson would have hit double digits, all things being equal.
1915 was the Washington Senators phenom's sixth consecutive season with an ERA in the ones (1.55).
He led the American League in wins (27) for a third straight campaign and set league bests in seemingly countless categories, including innings pitched (336.2), starts (39), complete games (35), shutouts (7), strikeouts (203), WHIP (0.933), and ERA+ (191).
Washington finished fourth in the AL, criminally pushing Johnson off every MVP voter's ballot.
He was just as good as he was when he won the award in 1913 and should have been at the head of the 1915 race.
If there had been some award for pitching excellence, any at all, Johnson may have gotten the recognition he deserved.
1914 Cracker Jack #133 Branch Rickey
Estimated PSA 3 VG Value: $6,000
Eventually, Branch Rickey made his Hall-of-Fame name as a manager and general manager.
He ended phase one of his MLB career, though, with a blink-and-you'll-miss-it 1914.
After playing 118 games for the St. Louis Browns and New York Yankees from 1905-1907, Rickey left his pro playing days behind to enroll at the University of Michigan.
He pulled double duty while studying, taking over as baseball coach.
In 1912, Rickey stepped away from his U of M coaching duties and a fledgling (yet somehow failing) law career to join the St. Louis Browns as a scout.
He was promoted to field manager in late 1913.
Using his academics to his advantage, Rickey poured over stats to search for every possible on-field advantage.
His real value was on the bench and in the front office, but he did get a couple of swings in during the 1914 campaign.
The 32-year-old made the final two plate appearances of his career for the Browns, striking out once.
1914 Cracker Jack #66 Nap Lajoie
Estimated PSA 3 VG Value: $5,000
Nap Lajoie hit the cover off the ball until his eyes gave out.
In his first eighteen seasons between the Phillies, Athletics, and Cleveland Naps, Lajoie hit under .300 just once (1908, .289).
He racked up five batting titles over that time frame, although one remains under dispute, a 1910 victory over Ty Cobb overturned due to what amounts to a clerical error.
Lajoie was an offensive juggernaut of the Deadball Era, a natural hitter with one of the sweetest swings of the 20th Century.
There was little that could stop him from piling up the base knocks.
That is, until his eyesight began to short-circuit.
For a few years before the 1914 campaign, Lajoie outperformed his steadily failing eyes with instincts and timing.
Once 1914 arrived, though, the Hall-of-Famer struggled to track the ball into the catcher's mitt.
The 39-year-old hit .258 with a .313 on-base percentage in 121 games, both new career worsts for the Hall-of-Famer.
1914 Cracker Jack #6 Eddie Plank
Estimated PSA 3 VG Value: $4,800
Eddie Plank was a veteran stalwart of the Philadelphia Athletics club that won three World Series titles in four seasons from 1910 to 1913.
The Athletics were favored to make it four of five in 1914, yet were shockingly upended by the Boston Braves in a four-and-out Fall Classic, ending Plank's 14-year stay in Philly with a thud.
It all started well enough.
Despite falling below average in ERA+ (91), Plank finished 15-7 with a 2.87 ERA and 110 strikeouts in 185.1 innings.
The 38-year-old lefty didn't have the stamina to continue along as the Athletics' workhorse, but he was still a vital part of the team's winning formula.
Plank even got the ball for Game Two of the Series and surrendered just one run in a complete-game outing.
However, he ran into a buzzsaw in Boston pitcher Bill James and lost a hard-luck decision, 1-0.
That was that for Plank with the A's, as he skipped over to the rival Federal League for a 1915 campaign.
1914 Cracker Jack #94 Ed Cicotte
Estimated PSA 3 VG Value: $4,500
Ed Cicotte's "shine ball" beamed brightly during the 1914 campaign.
One of the most enduring junk pitchers of the 1910s, Cicotte used any means necessary to put the deadest of balls into the "Deadball Era."
This included doctoring the ball with concealed talcum powder multiple times a game.
It was the worst-kept secret in all of baseball.
Rival hitters complained regularly to no avail as Cicotte's fluttering, shiny knuckleball ducked and dove away from their bats.
1914 was the peak of Cicotte's shiny, spun-out pitch.
Securing the only MVP votes of his 14-year career, the 30-year-old Chicago White Sox righty pitched to a 2.04 ERA in 45 outings (30 starts) with 15 complete games, four shutouts, and zero home runs allowed in 269.1 innings pitched.
Hitters couldn't square his stuff up with any sustained luck.
Cicotte ended the year at an unsightly 11-16, yet only because the 70-win White Sox had little else going right for them.
1914 Cracker Jack #65 Tris Speaker
Estimated PSA 3 VG Value: $4,500
With the new Federal League opening its doors and poaching talent in 1914, MLB owners opened their checkbooks to keep top players from jumping ship.
Tris Speaker was one of the main beneficiaries of this burgeoning bidding war.
The 26-year-old Boston Red Sox center fielder was a prime target two years after an MVP season.
Rather than making the move, Speaker used his leverage to pick up a massive raise to $18,000, equivalent to over half a million dollars in 2024 money.
With his bag secured, Speaker returned to work, pushing the Sox to 91 wins and second in the American League.
The Cooperstown icon played in 158 of Boston's 159 games, leading the Majors in doubles (46) for the second time in three seasons.
He hit .338 on the campaign and topped the AL with 193 hits and 287 total bases.
1914 Cracker Jack #37 Grover Alexander
Estimated PSA 3 VG Value: $4,000
The Philadelphia Phillies returned to their middle-of-the-road ways in 1914 despite another knockout year from staff ace Grover Alexander.
One year before, the Phillies rode Alexander's arm and a balanced roster to the franchise's first second-place finish since 1901.
Philadelphia still had yet to raise an NL pennant, but optimism was at an all-time peak.
Pessimism crept right back in 1914.
The Phillies fell to 74-80, the franchise's second losing campaign in three tries.
After four years of mixed results, manager Red Dooin was axed, and the franchise stood at yet another confusing crossroads.
Amidst all this turmoil, Alexander continued to pitch with poise.
The 27-year-old righty led the NL in wins (27) for a second time while also pacing the league in complete games (32), innings pitched (355.0), and strikeouts (214).
Perhaps most impressively, Alexander's 2.38 ERA would mark the last time until 1921 that he'd finish north of two runs per nine.
1914 Cracker Jack #87 Hick Cady
Estimated PSA 3 VG Value: $3,750
Hick Cady never hit much.
He didn't really have to.
During a six-year stay with the Boston Red Sox from 1912 to 1917, Cady was the ultimate game manager behind home plate.
With Hick behind the dish, the Red Sox finished first in the AL in runs allowed five times.
Three of those league-leading showings resulted in World Series wins.
While 1914 wasn't one of them, it was still a testament to Cady's outsized impact on the team.
Boston hit well enough in 1914, placing third in the nine-squad AL with 3.7 runs per game.
However, that was over a run worse than the eventual pennant-winning Philadelphia Athletics' output.
Without Cady sequencing pitches and blocking balls in the dirt, the Red Sox would have easily placed well out of earshot of 99-win Philadelphia.
As it was, the stingy Sox ended the campaign with the third-best record in the Majors (91-62), a bad week or so away from tracking down the original Swingin' A's.
1914 Cracker Jack #17 Roger Bresnahan
Estimated PSA 3 VG Value: $3,600
Roger Bresnahan took the money and ran straight to the Northside of Chicago.
As player/manager of the St. Louis Cardinals, Bresnahan clashed regularly with new owner Helene Robison Britton over virtually everything.
With plenty in his savings from investments and his decade-plus as a Big Leaguer, the veteran catcher pushed Britton to sell the team to him.
She repeatedly said no, and the relationship deteriorated with every rebuffed offer.
Britton ultimately fired Bresnahan at the end of the 1912 season, selling his rights to the Cubs.
Bresnahan took Britton to court to challenge the move and eventually gained free-agent status.
That allowed him to pick up a huge signing bonus from the Cubs and $20,000 from the winning lawsuit.
The future Hall-of-Famer played parts of three years with Chicago, with his best year coming in 1914.
Bresnahan played 101 games at second base and catcher, hitting .278 with ten doubles, four triples, and 42 runs scored.
1914 Cracker Jack #136 Rabbit Maranville
Estimated PSA 3 VG Value: $3,600
The Boston Braves came out of nowhere in 1914 to stun everyone as World Series champions.
After eleven consecutive losing seasons, five of which with 100 losses or more, the Braves struck gold with the double-play combo of second-year shortstop Rabbit Maranville and newly-acquired second baseman Johnny Evers.
In a time when singles and doubles were the bulk of the game's offense, the Maranville/Evers duo broke down opposing hitters with the deftest fielding and softest turns in the Majors.
"It was just Death Valley, whoever hit a ball down our way," Maranville said.
Evers and Maranville finished 1-2 in NL MVP voting based primarily on their defensive contributions.
Maranville hit just .246 for the campaign with a .306 on-base percentage, posting a sub-replacement 85 OPS+.
Regardless, his web work made him irreplaceable, including a breathtaking, game-ending double play turn to give the Sox a 2-0 Series lead over the heavily-favored A's.
1915 Cracker Jack #6 Eddie Plank
Estimated PSA 3 VG Value: $3,000
1914 Cracker Jack #99 Frank Chance
Estimated PSA 3 VG Value: $2,750
Frank Chance made few friends in his fifteen seasons with the Chicago Cubs.
However, the results were undeniable.
Taking over as player/manager in 1906, Chance led the Cubbies to four NL pennants in five years and two World Series titles.
His players both hated him and begrudgingly respected him.
As did opposing pitchers.
That's where the headshots came in.
Chance liked to bully in the batter's box, standing directly over the plate.
Already with no love lost, opponents headhunted him with beaned balls aplenty.
The aftereffects were horrifying.
Chance underwent brain surgery in 1912 to clear blood clots.
In a wild turn, Cubs owner Charles Webb Murphy fired him in the hospital after a standoff over Murphy's penny-pinching approach.
Somehow, Chance fully recovered in time to take over player/manager duties for the 1913 New York Yankees.
The Yankees remained awful under Chance, who played just 13 games in 1913 and 1914 before tendering his resignation.
1914 Cracker Jack #3 Joe Tinker
Estimated PSA 3 VG Value: $2,750
Joe Tinker was unceremoniously dumped out of Cincinnati in 1913 after one tumultuous year as player/manager.
Held up as the scapegoat for the Reds' seventh-place finish, Tinker was sold to the Brooklyn Dodgers after the campaign.
Rather than playing ball and moving to New York, the 33-year-old shortstop cut bait and left for the Chicago ChiFeds of the Federal League.
It was one heck of a contrast.
In Cincinnati, Tinker was the villain.
The Reds stunk regardless, but the Hall-of-Famer took the rap.
In Chicago, Tinker was met with adoration.
Once again, as a player/manager, the 33-year-old shortstop ushered the ChiFeds to within one game of the Federal League pennant.
His .256 average and 21 doubles were secondary.
Tinker made the ChiFeds the hottest ticket in town and helped give the Federal League some needed credibility.
1914 Cracker Jack #39 Chick Gandil
Estimated PSA 3 VG Value: $2,500
It's no surprise that Chick Gandil's arrival to the Washington Senators in 1912 coincided with the franchise's first brush with contention.
Years before his reputation suffered from the 1919 Black Sox Scandal, Gandil was a star on the rise.
The young first baseman immediately emerged as an MVP candidate, hitting over .300 in 1912 and 1913 for the NL's second-place team.
It was the first time the Senators placed better than sixth in the pennant chase.
"He proved to be the missing link needed to round out my infield," manager Clark Griffith said. "We won seventeen straight games after he joined the club, which shows that we must have been strengthened a good bit somewhere."
In 1914, the Senators slipped to third, and Gandil wasn't quite the same hitter, posting a .259 average and .324 on-base percentage.
However, he still found ways to play winning baseball, including his MLB-leading 38 sacrifice bunts.
1914 Cracker Jack #61 Ray Schalk
Estimated PSA 3 VG Value: $2,500
Ray Schalk is the father of the modern-day catching position.
Rather than simply calling pitches, the Chicago White Sox legend was a multi-faceted defender who pushed the action defensively.
Even at age 21 in 1914, Schalk had a presence and an insight, unlike pretty much anyone in catcher's gear.
Schalk had one of his finest showings in his sophomore year, hitting .270 with 13 doubles, 24 stolen bases, 30 runs, and 36 RBIs in 136 games.
More importantly, Schalk positioned himself all over the infield to back up throws and create new opportunities for outs.
It was the framework for an approach that is essential to catching today.
He also demanded 110% from his pitchers, regardless of where the 70-win White Sox sat in the standings.
"The manner in which Schalk handles his pitchers must be of inestimable value to his team," the Sporting News' John Sheridan wrote. "He makes a pitcher work up to the mark all the time."
Cracker Jack Baseball Cards In Review
As you can see, this set is jam-packed with Hall of Famers and big-name superstars who never quite made it to Cooperstown.
And the artwork on them is second to none.
The rich, red backgrounds perfectly complement the fantastic player poses and action shots.
Piecing together entire sets of 1914 and 1915 Cracker Jack baseball cards is one of the more challenging pursuits in the entire hobby.
The thin paper stock and exposure to the snacks made them extremely susceptible to wear and tear.
Not to mention, many of them were thrown out over the years, as few could have guessed back then what kind of values they'd have today.
Both sets should remain high on many collectors' wishlists for years to come.
The history, the players, the artwork, and the challenge are just too much for collectors to resist.