M131 Baltimore Newsboys -- Lets see'em

[Rhotchkiss]

I like rare things, so naturally I became intrigued by the M131 Baltimore Newsboy set, which was only issued in 1911, only distributed in Baltimore, and only given to children who sold/handed out newspapers. Making them even more rare is the fact they were a redemption gimmick where the "newsboys" were incentivized to turn the cards in for cash. Its a cool set with some serious HOFers, such as Cobb, Wagner, Young, and Speaker, among others. Below are the M131 HOFers currently in my collection, each of which I believe has a population of no more than 5-10. Also below is a write-up about the set by prewardcards.com and here is a link to a Sports Collectors Daily article: https://www.sportscollectorsdaily.co...-newsboys-set/

Anyone else got M131 Newsboys? If so, lets see'em.

"The 1911 M131 Baltimore News Newsboys set was created in part as a promotion for its newsboys. The set contained a total of 30 cards and on the back of the cards, it stated that $1 would be paid to the first 35 boys that assembled the entire set.

The cards featured color images on the fronts with parallel images and a parallel checklist to the E94 George Close Candy cards. The lone difference is that this series used blue backgrounds instead of the colored backgrounds in the E94 set. In addition to the mention of the promotion on the back, the reverse included the full set checklist of all 30 cards.

The cards are quite rare and these days, generally top $1,000 each. The rarity isn’t a surprise, of course, as it was only a regional promotion. And who knows how many sets were completed and potentially discarded by the newspaper. The cards don’t state if the newsboys had to turn over the cards upon completing a set to receive $1, but if so, they could easily have been simply discarded by the company."