1914 E145-1 Cracker Jack back variations question

[fkw]

A collector (Ron) posted over on FCB an interesting question...

He asked if the 1914 Cracker Jack cards came with both the "10,000,000" and "15,000,000" numbers on back?
.... His 1914 Doyle #4 shows the 10Mil, my only 1914 card a Bodie #79 shows the 15Mil, but Lipsets Encyclopedia says the 10Mil shows on the first 87 cards, and the succeeding numbers show 15Mil. But with our 2 examples that isnt true.

Whats the real story behind this back variation, does anyone know the breakdown and if any players can be found with both variations?

my only 1914

[btkpath]

Hi Frank,

In looking at my 90 1914 Cracker Jacks, all that have numbers of 72 or less have the 10,000,000 designation, and all that are 74 or greater have the 15,000,000 designation. I don't have card number 73, so I cannot comment.

Given the fact that there are 144 cards in the set, it would seem like the first half has the 10 million designation and the second half, the 15 million designation.

Is anybody's experience different?

I cannot comment on the 1915 set.

Thanks,

Barry

[ephus]

Here is the back of my 1914 Cracker Jack #88. It shows the 15,000,000 number. What Barry says is right, I have never seen a1914 card show otherwise.

[fkw]

Thanks

That makes sense, First 1/2 of set with "10,000,000" and the second 1/2 with "15,000,000".
Almost like it was 2 series, wonder if they were issued at same time? I would think not.... ??
Anyone have any info if the first 1/2 was issued earlier than the second 1/2 of the set?

[tiger8mush]

The strange thing is, the 2nd half of the set seems harder to come by in general. Yet according to the back of the cards, 50% more copies were issued for the 2nd set? Interesting.

[btkpath]

Great observation Rob.....That has been my experience as well!

Barry

[iggyman]

Perhaps some of the cards in the 2nd half of the set never made it inside of a Cracker Jack box and ended-up residing next to Topps 1952 high number cards???

Lovely Day...

[fkw]

It may have been a running total, with the "first series" having 10,000,000 and then they added 5,000,000 more when they printed the "second series"


But I have never believed they actually made that many 1914 cards, they are tough... that would be 69,000+ of the Mathewson throwing cards printed.... ya right

[FrankWakefield]

I have a few 1914 Cracker Jack cards. Cards that are among 1-72 show the 10,000,000; cards among 73-144 show 15,000,000. I think Mr. Lipset mistyped the demarcation point. He got a handful of things wrong, some possibly by typos, he got a bunch of stuff right.


It is an illogical leap to think that there were 5 million cards of 1 through 72, and then 10 million more of 73 through 144.

I think what makes more sense is at the beginning they planned a series of 144 cards with a total issue of 10 million. And they planned on printing cards 1-72 first. Possibly as one bunch, or maybe multiples. By the time they were ready to add cards 73 through 144, they reconsidered their printing quantities, and upped the total to 15 million. That could still be 7.5 mil of cards 1-72 and 7.5 mil of cards 73-144, or some other ratio. I don't recall any premium for cards 73 through 144 from years past, nor do I notice one now. I think they just had good sales and printed more cards, approximately the same quantity for each number.

There is a premium for the 1915 Cracker Jack cards 145 through 176; but that's something for a different thread.

I do believe they distributed millions of these cards. I think many were thrown away shortly after the package was opened. I think some were pitched when the next year's set came out. Some were discarded because they wore out, some pitched when the collecting kid moved out, some went to paper drives for the war efforts... I agree with fkw above that they are tough, a low percentage survived.