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JimPTed, great theories, but one thing troubles me....it is proposed that because there were 12 150-only subjects, that lends creedence to the 12 cards per sheet theory.
Don't we have good understanding as to why the 12 subjects were left off the 350 series? (Changed teams, out of baseball, etc) Couldn't it just be a coincidence that the number of "corrections" made to the 150 series when it was re-released as a 350 series was 12 (or 9, depending on what you believe)?
Also, consider that the 12 (or 9?) 150only's were probably scattered across different strips or sheets. I say this because when they first laid out the players in early 1909, they couldn't have known which ones would be left off of a then-unknown future 350 series. So did they rearrange the subject-layouts on the sheet altogether for the next series? Wouldn't that have involved significant re-tooling of the printing plates? Do we think it was a single 12-subject plate or 12 individual plates stacked together? That's a question for the printing historians out there. Wouldn't it be great if we had more technological background about ALC?
Also, consider they indicated 150 subjects on this "150 series" on the first printed backs (Piedmonts, presumably) for some reason which I have never heard explained...Why didn't they say "156" subjects?
So the designers would have known the printing limits of cards/sheet and they still had a target of 150 cards (which is divisible by 6 not 12)
I don't discount the 12-cards per sheet theory, I just am questioning how the 150onlys play into that theory.