Kashin R316 Short prints

[Baseball Bob]

Ok, as promised, here is the most up-to-date explanation of the enigmatic short print of the Kashin set. The combined graded (PSA + SGC) populations of the four "short prints" are as follows: Todt 24, Hadley 7, Seibold 12, Haines 10 (not counting "authentic" designations). I would add that in my seven years of collecting this set, I have seen perhaps two or three ungraded Haines and Hadley cards, five or six Seibold and numerous Todts. The Todt is no doubt much more common, and its POP actually exceeds ten other cards from the set. How could this be?
The traditional story of the SP evolution reads like this. The Kashin set was originally issued without a Ruth card, and then somehow the issuer "came to their senses" (as one enthusiast put it) and removed the four short prints, one from each box, and added a Ruth in each box. This was a simple story, but failed to explain why the Todt was so numerous compared to the other three SPs.
Recently, two early Kashin boxes have come to light that, along with the "final" or overwhelmingly most common box design, explain how this happened. I have attached a progressive illustration of these below. The SP cards were NOT one in each box! The Blue Box on the left is what I interpret to be the original issue box. The set contained Haines, Seibold and Todt, but no Hadley. It also contains a Ruth, but only in the Blue Box. A "transitional" box exists which clearly shows that the Todt and the Hadley were, for a short period, actually in the same (Coral) box! Thus the Todt, alone among the four, existed in both early boxes and thus should be expected to be higher POP. The Hadley is the scarcest short print, and this is because it was only issued for the short period of the "transitional" box.
There were also a small number of other players switched from box to box between the different versions. None of these resulted in a significant POP anomaly, however.
I apologize for the image quality, but the limitations of file size prevent clearer resolution. I'd be glad to email the .png file to anyone who wants it.

[leftygrove10]

Originally Posted by Baseball Bob

I apologize for the image quality, but the limitations of file size prevent clearer resolution. I'd be glad to email the .png file to anyone who wants it.

That is very interesting. This is not one of the sets that I have attempted to collect yet, but could envision trying at some point. Could you please email me your picture to brad_green@cox.net? Thank you.

Brad

[DaveW]

Very interesting Eric! I’d never seen the early boxes but I thought one must exist. Could I get a copy of your picture too? I’ve almost finished the set.
Thanks,
Dave
dwsportsguy@gmail.com

[Casey2296]

Great information Eric, thanks for sharing your research. Any speculation as to why Ott & Hornsby seem relatively rare?

[Baseball Bob]

It may seem like the Ott is scarce, since it comes up for sale infrequently, but it's actually #5 in POP out of the whole set with 57 graded copies. The Hornsby checks in at #32 with 41 graded copies, which is pretty low among the HOFers in the set. Both come from the Canary Box, which has a significantly lower POP overall than the other three boxes. I have never been able to figure this out - it does not seem to correlate to how many HOFers were in the boxes or anything else obvious.

[Baseball Bob]

I made a few typos on the first version I posted. Sorry about that! Here is the corrected image.