TED Z: There is no dispute that all of the 1947 Homogenized Bond Bread cards existing today still have their original white backs (no matter how dirty the backs may have become) and 4 rounded corners, except for those like the examples posted in this thread where the die cut did not go all the way through.
Let me digress a little. In 1947, the Remar Baking Company put out its Sunbeam Bread set for the Oakland Oaks of my home town. Records show that in 1936, Remar was baking 40,000 loafs of bread per day. Though I cannot find records as to the number of loafs Remar baked post-war, it is not unreasonable to presume that number had significantly increased by 1947.
I do not have information on how many loafs of Homogenized Bond Bread were baked daily, but it is not unreasonable to assume the number was 50,000 to 100,000 or more loafs each day. Assuming 100,000 loafs per day, even if the cards were printed in sheets of 48 (an issue I will address in a subsequent post), that's a need to print 2,000 sheets just to satisfy one day's demand for inserts. Ted has said the cards were distributed from 1947 into 1948. That's a lot of days, and this was done for months. In just one week alone (assuming they did not bake on Sundays), 600,000 cards or more were inserted.
I have begun been doing extensive research not only on the 1947 Homogenized Bond Bread set, but on the "Sports Star Subjects" set, the Festberg remainders, various other sets that have been called "Bond Bread" sets (including the "three-sided perforated" set, the "cowboy" backed set and the larger sized Exhibits), as well as the Team Photo Pack sets sold in the ball parks and others (even the R364 Blue Tints because they were mentioned in this thread).
I will soon post extensive details identifying the company that was the source of the pictures for these sets, which will show the obvious printer. We all know, on the surface, the 1947 Team Photo Packs appear to be the source of the pictures used in many of these sets. They are not. They are only the same pictures coming from the same source. The difference between the Team Photo Packs and the cards of these various sets were printed gives us a clue. [In fact, it was the Babe Zaharias card posted in this thread with "Hess Shoe" rubber stamped backs of cards that led me to hours of research and the identification.] A close look with a magnifying glass at the same cards of the same player (or boxer) from one set to another shows the cards of that player all have the same screen dot pattern. [On the Exhibits, the dot pattern is just in a larger size.]
As to the special Jackie Robinson set, another thread on net54 baseball has provided convincing evidence that Bond Bread distributed the first card of that set in 1947, including by going into black neighborhoods and giving that card away along with two slides of Bond Bread to promote the product. The rest of the special Jackie Robinson set was distributed one card at a time from 1947 through 1949. Hopefully, that discovery has changed people's perspectives on what are Robinson's rookie cards. It is a tough pill to swallow when a card you think is a rookie card no longer is. Fortunately, those Jackie Robinson cards still retain their scarcity.
As to the "Sports Star Subjects" set, which is not a 1947 Homogenized Bond Bread set, both here in net54ball and elsewhere, many have dated the set to 1949 because that was the earliest year any advertisement offering the set has been found.
Ted, the work you have done on T206s is masterful! From what you have described in just your net54ball postings alone to develop the different advertising back sets clearly shows that few, if any, collectors have the knowledge and ability to even come close.
But with all due respect, I have a friendly disagreement with you about whether there is a Walker Cooper card in the "Sports Star Subjects" set. One of the 48 players would have had to be left out so that Cooper could come in. All of my records and research indicate that all 48 original players and boxers appeared in the "Sports Star Subjects" set. I would like to see an actual Walker Cooper card from the set.
As to the Festberg remainder cards, others have claimed they are 1980's reprints made when they were first offered to the public. Below are two scans of my examination under ultra-violet light. This is important because by 1950 paper manufacturers were adding brighteners to the papermaking process because both pictures and text print more clearing on brightened paperstock. Under ultra-violet light, brighteners phosphoresce and/or fluoresce while paperstock without brighteners remains dull. A Festberg card was placed over a strip of brighten paper. Both scans below show the strip of paper reacting to the ultra-violet light while the Festberg remainder card did not. That places the Festberg remainder cards to being made no later than 1950.
I take the story about the finding of the Festberg remainder cards at face value. That story indicates they were unissued cards. They should not be described as cards released to the public. They should always be referred to as remainders. You'll note, I did not say which set they were remainders of. Keep an open mind. My soon to be posted discussion (it may take a few posts) about the photograph sources and printers of these set should help clear that up.
P.S. I add this note in memory of my fellow collector, Ken Yee. I remember going to a show with him decades ago. He took me to a dealer, pulled out a Mark Maguire highly graded PSA rookie card and sold to the dealer for $50, about one-sixth of the going price at the time. I protested: "Why didn't you sell it me? Everybody knows it's a valuable card." He explained that over 500,000 of the same card had already been graded by the various grading companies. He said, they don't care and know exactly what they are doing, making money by getting everybody to believe they provide a valuable service.
And that leads me to TED Z's favorite "Bond Bread" card that gets posted from time to time.
This past week, I looked at the population reports for 1947 cards at PSA's website. For those who do not know, PSA has graded only one card it called a 1947 Bond Bread" card, a PSA 7 Ted Williams. Apparently, there was some controversy, because after grading that one card, PSA now says it no longer grades 1947 Bond Bread cards. I've never seen the back of that cards, so I can't determine what it is.
There are also Exhibits cards with the identical pictures as the 1947 Homogenized Bond Bread set, but the pictures were printed in the larger Exhibits size. Though these Exhibits are not Bond Bread cards, both PSA, SCG and I believe BGS continue to grade them as 1947 Bond Bread Exhibits." PSA alone as graded some 305 of these "1947 Bond Bread Exhibits." The same player pictures have been found on three-sided perforated cards with pictures of Westerns stars or other subjects printed on the back. Though not Homogenized Bond Bread cards, several grading companies grade these three sized-perforated cards as 1947 Bond Bread Perforated Dual-Sized. PSA has graded 28 of them.