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Posted By: Hal Lewis

To me, the distinction lies in the comparison of the DATES of the cards and the other issues (or lack of issues) during that time frame.

In 1904 and 1906 when Fan Craze was produced, the ONLY set of "real" baseball cards that had been produced in an ENTIRE DECADE (since 1895 Mayo's) was the 1903 Breisch Williams set.

Accordingly, for any player who was NOT included in the 1903 set... the Fan Craze cards is the ONLY set of cards in existence that was widely distributed from 1895 until 1908.

In contrast, by 1913, A LOT of sets had been produced in the past few years, and a LOT MORE would follow very soon. The presence of a lot of "real" card sets severely diminishes the importance of any "card game" sets.

The 1904 Allegheny set, however, is NOT a "baseball card" ONLY because it was NEVER distributed to the public! ONE SET was made as a PROTOTYPE, so how could anyone have "collected" them, then or now?

If someone can print ONE card and have it "count" as a real baseball card... then I should stop typing this message and start printing some ONE-OF-A-KIND extremely rare baseball cards myself!

PS - Since I do NOT have a Grover Alexander rookie card in my collection yet anyway... I reserve the right to change my mind if someone wants to sell me a PSA 10 Tom Barker Alexander card.