[ErikV]

Phil,

I personally like the idea of knowing when certain sets were issued.
Any form of research I think not only benefits the hobby (current
and future collectors alike), but perhaps more importantly, it provides
an accurate timeline of what was taking place at the time of the sets'
issue. Here's a couple of examples (an earlier post regarding the
E107 issue. 1903 was when the American League was established
and the first World Series took place. Another example would be
the 1933 Goudey set. At that time Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig and the
Yankees were American icons, thus, each player had a number of
cards issued in that set.) I believe what it comes down to is that
for any given set, there is a general theme as to what was
occurring in baseball. I think as time has passed, these themes
have been long been forgotten by most collectors who simply collect
to compile a set, player, team, Hall of Famers, etc!

As for the Standard Calatog, I think it would be remiss not to
place an accurate date on a set, IF an accurate date could be
determined. It would be no less a disservice to the hobby not to
include a new find such as the Skydash Jim Thorpe Colgan Chip
to this set, as to not include a newly discovered publish date.

In terms of grading companies, that's a whole different issue.
Many issues such as the ones you brought up would be big
problems. There again, what about cards that have been historically
accepted as being one year and through research are determined
to be wrong. (One example of this is the 1933 Goudey #106
Nap Lajoie, which was actually issued in 1934!) Would the hobby
accept this new publish date? I rather doubt it. Again, I would
hope the movers and shakers of the hobby embrace all new info
discovered by researchers, but only time will tell.

ErikV