[Exhibitman]

Johnny: welcome to the Monster. For the most part the info put up here as to specific card sets is quite solid. Many of the posters here are listed as contributors to the Standard Catalog of Baseball Cards and have written many articles for various hobby publications. That said, you have to take any information here with a grain or two of salt. We are ruminating on what might have happened in a print shop 100 years ago while they were making throw-away inserts for ciggy packs. It wasn't exactly rocket science to them.

As for the issue at hand, I can speak to it with a somewhat different perspective, being a publisher of checklists and a catalog on cards for several years now. It is extremely difficult to separate urban myth and assumptions from proven facts when it comes to so many cards because a lot of what we accept as "card lore" originated from best guesses and creative assumptions by pioneering hobbyists, as well as memories of well-meaning collectors. Some of the information is accurate, other stuff "seemed" accurate and ends up reported as fact. That is why mistakes/interpolations/errors/intentional fabrications rankle so many collectors. What is critical above all is to be open-minded enough to admit that a theory is untrue, that a checklist is wrong, etc. I've had to go back and correct several things from my earlier checklists and catalogs and I expect to do more in the future. It is both an illuminating and humbling experience. It should not be maddening.