Look at a stack of T206s, I'm talking about a hundred of them, or so. Looking only at their fronts, sort them by condition, best to the right, most worn to the left. Then turn them all over. The 150 series will be ever so slightly likely to have more wear, especially well rounded corners. You can see that with T206s... which generally started with adults, or very old kids. The candy cards usually started with kids, and kids put cards in pockets and everywhere. How many of us did the clothes pins and spokes thing? I did, with Mantle on one side and Maris on the other.
The E90-1s and E102s are usually found quite worn. Kids had them. Not all, but many. Some kids pasted them into scrapbooks, some of those were soaked out long ago, and are now found in high numbered slabs. Still, lots of those candy cards show quite a bit of wear, kid wear. A kid didn't carry ball cards in pockets for 50 years, just a few, while he was a kid. I'd think the 1914 Cracker Jack cards could have been stacked and carried in a pocket for 2 or 3 years, and the 1915 Cracker Jacks for 1 or 2. I think that because the kids were growing up, and they'd reach an age where they left their cards behind; and, the 1914 cards could mix in well enough with the 1915s, but when 1916 rolled around and there were no longer 'major league' teams in Indianapolis and Kansas City, then those cards were no longer actively collected. As kids, we always focused on the new year, the current year. Cards a year or two old had lost their charm.
You don't have to buy into that, but I still think it's about right.
I am no expert on Cracker Jack packaging. We had boxes when I was a kid, brown cardboard covered with colored paper. The candy was in wax paper inside. Today it's in a plastic/foil bag? I think back in 1914 it was very thick paper / thin card stock, printing on the outside surface and candy against the inside. I had tops and bottoms that were folded then sealed someway, took a bit of determination to tear into it. I don't think the 1914 package was that difficult to tear open. I hold Mr. Lipset in high regard, more so than it seems many here do. I'm not sure it was that much of a box back then. The slogan "A prize in every box" dates to 1912, so maybe it was some sort of box; but not the stout thing I wrestled with as a kid.
And as for Bruce answering any of my questions, it seems to me he dodged them all. He responded that he'd acquired a Suggs card. He hasn't responded about what I asked about it and about other FL Cracker Jacks. He started a thread that was of interest to me, I wish someone else would offer what they think about the FLers. Thank you, Jim, for noticing that Bruce danced around answering.
And I don't know about where those nice 1914 cards came from, but it wasn't the 25 cent mail in offer mentioned on the back of each 1915 card. The 1914 cards came in the, wait for it, boxes. There.
Last edited by FrankWakefield; 07-31-2010 at 10:37 PM.
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07-31-2010, 10:35 PM
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