Thanks Steve!! Yes, all you said about the cards is true. We can also factor in the idea that primarily children ate the Cracker Jacks, as opposed to the adults who smoked and were more apt to collect and keep cigarette cards. But still having said all that, and all that has been said already, I still don't understand why so few survived. I personally believe that, judging from the quality of the paper used for the 1914's, the folks at Cracker Jack did not really take the "card as a prize" promotion very seriously. I very much doubt the cards were distributed for an entire baseball season, or nationally. If that were the case, there would be more around.
The fact that CJ essentially reprinted the exact set the following year, and indeed took it quite seriously, what with the album, and mail away sets, and better card stock kinda indicates that they were making them readily available to everyone who wanted them across the country. In other words, meeting a demand that was not met the previous year. Based on these facts, I bet that the 1914's were extremely limited to begin with.
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