[jefferyepayne]

Here is my opinion about what happened based on the info I've been able to collect.

All indications are that the promotion of this set was a bust. Sports Company of America talks about distributing "millions" of these cards but given the population of existing cards, they did not successfully do this. The cost of a card (and associated candy and sports scrip) was ten cents, and that was pretty expensive for the 1920s. I doubt that millions were sold ... probably thousands instead.

Correspondence with the athletes says that any of them that sign up to be involved would receive 500 copies of their own card for personal distribution. My bet is that most of the existing cards out there today came from these freebies given to the athletes. Also from a couple of finds of uncut sheets that have popped up throughout the years.

If the above is true, the rarity of each individual card is likely tied to whether the athlete distributed the 500 copies s/he received or not. Perhaps Friedman misplaced his or just wasn't interested in distributing them. If so, the only remaining cards are those that did sell through the coin operated machine or were on a discovered uncut sheet.

jeff