Quote:
Originally Posted by nolemmings
1. It is widely considered his rookie card, and always has been. Many if not most consider minor-league issues to be pre-rookie. If anything, the Baltimore News Ruth has benefited from those who must have a "first card" more than from those who chase rookies and who thus pick m101-4/5.
2. It was in fact nationally distributed, so that statement is just flat-ass wrong. Show me one corner of the country that did not receive the Sporting News. Probably the same could be said for Successful Farming.
3. M101-4 and m101-5 were in fact sold individually in packages, as evidenced by anyone who has bothered to read the back of a Holmes to Homes, Standard Biscuit or Morehouse Baking card. In addition, Mall Theatre cards were doled out one by one at the movies. At least some of the Department Stores required a purchase for the cards, although they were given out in groups of twenty.
4. You couldn't buy a pack of T206 cards either--you could acquire them one or two at a time. See above for the same argument on m101-4/5.
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I'll start with number 4. I've seen a pack of cigarettes that contained 3 t206s. So you are wrong.
To #1. M101-4/5 has never been called a rookie until the last 10-12 years. I've been in this hobby for almost 50 years. I asked a dealer yesterday about that card, someone I've been buying cards from since the 70s, and he confirmed this. The card doesn't fit the definition of rookie. These cards were sold as sets, they were repackaged as adverting. In 1999, the card commanded no premium over other Ruth cards.
As for 2 & 3, those statements require proof. 118 M101-4 on ebay, less than a set, tell me that these were not widely distributed, just printed up by a guy in Chicago. That doesn't seem any different than what a guy named Border did in the 1980s.