Mystery Lajoie Card in Legendary Auction

[glchen]

Here are a couple of other sheets with different advertisers for M101-4.

Link 1

Link 2

[Hankphenom]

It looks to me that this program by Mendelsohn was a real bust. If there's only a handful of the uncut sheets known, and no duplicates by back, it would seem that not a single advertiser took them up on their offer of 250 uncut sheets for $1.05 each. All of the three uncut sheets posted here are the framed versions, one of which was provided gratis to each advertiser, according to my solicitation mailer, and I presume there are cards known with backs of each of these advertisers for whom framed uncut sheets have surfaced. And if there are only 21 known backs, it can be assumed that this represents the total number of companies that signed up for the program at all. The minimum order for cards was 500 sets, and I'm guessing that most of the orders were for that amount. Are there some backs (Sporting News, for example) that are known to exist in significantly greater quantities than others, indicating a larger order? And the scarcity of complete sets might be explained by the stinginess of the Successful Farming offer, which required advance payment of a SEVEN YEAR subscription to get the complete set of 200 cards. One last question: before the surfacing of my mailer, was it presumed that the cards were produced by the individual advertisers themselves rather than, as it now appears, by the Mendelsohn Company?

[glchen]

I am far, far from an expert, but I thought that other than Sporting News, the other advertisers purchased blank backed versions of the M101-4/5, and stamped their advertising on the back of the cards themselves.

[Hankphenom]

Originally Posted by glchen

I am far, far from an expert, but I thought that other than Sporting News, the other advertisers purchased blank backed versions of the M101-4/5, and stamped their advertising on the back of the cards themselves.

From the mailer: "At a trifling expense per set of 200 players you can obtain these photographs with your advertisement on the back of each..."

"The time to place your order with us is now so that these photographs can be printed with your advertisement and delivered in time for you to get the utmost of benefit."

"Remember, your own advertisement will appear on the back of every photograph and all photographs will be of the same quality of clear and lifelike photography as THE SAMPLE HEREWITH ENCLOSED."

So clearly Mendelsohn did the printing of the back ads and delivered them that way. And the "sample herewith enclosed might explain the Lajoie card (and others?) that have something to do with this set. Or, they might be referring to the strip of six "cards" on the mailer as the "sample herewith enclosed." Unless the mailer was intended to be sealed somehow (mine shows no indication of that, but then it was never mailed, either--perhaps coming from the Mendelsohn files themselves?) I don't see how a sample could have been enclosed, so perhaps they are referring to the strip of six on the outside of the mailer.

The sets should perhaps be renamed the M101-4 and M101-5 Mendelsohn's.

Great stuff.

[Leon]

Originally Posted by Hankphenom

From the mailer: "At a trifling expense per set of 200 players you can obtain these photographs with your advertisement on the back of each..."

"The time to place your order with us is now so that these photographs can be printed with your advertisement and delivered in time for you to get the utmost of benefit."

"Remember, your own advertisement will appear on the back of every photograph and all photographs will be of the same quality of clear and lifelike photography as THE SAMPLE HEREWITH ENCLOSED."

So clearly Mendelsohn did the printing of the back ads and delivered them that way. And the "sample herewith enclosed might explain the Lajoie card (and others?) that have something to do with this set. Or, they might be referring to the strip of six "cards" on the mailer as the "sample herewith enclosed." Unless the mailer was intended to be sealed somehow (mine shows no indication of that, but then it was never mailed, either--perhaps coming from the Mendelsohn files themselves?) I don't see how a sample could have been enclosed, so perhaps they are referring to the strip of six on the outside of the mailer.

The sets should perhaps be renamed the M101-4 and M101-5 Mendelsohn's.

Great stuff.

Burdick, in his final edition (1960) of the ACC gave the superset of M101 the name of "Sporting News" and then went on to classify them as 1-9....He said the -4s and -5s were "Premium Cards". Us collectors gave the M101-4/5 series the "The Sporting News" name. They should really be called "Premium Cards" which would be a bit more correct imo.....AND to think, a short 15 yrs ago the backs weren't even collected too much.

[nolemmings]

Hank, there are 18 confirmed advertising backs--the three known companies with full sheets did not have advertising on the card backs. They presumably ordered these sheets and were not provided them gratis.

Yes there are varying degrees of scarcity among the card backs. Sporting News is most plentiful, as it appears to have acquired licensing rights a few months into production. I would not necessarily agree that the promotion was a bust, as 18 advertisers in 13 or 14 states shows that it reached throughout the country. The fact that Mendelsohn offered the complete set in sheet or card form to the general public probably didn't help his advertisers much.

10,000 cards as a minimum order seems about right to me. Keep in mind that just because few sets survived doesn't mean they were not out there once. For example, Morehouse Baking in Lawrence Mass, which is of medium scarcity among m101 backs, offered prizes for redemption of the complete set, and several examples of Morehouse cards bear a redemption stamp, indicating that the prize was issued and the cards returned. So some sets were indeed amassed, yet the odds are very long against completing such a set today.

Yes it was presumed (by me anyway) that the card backs were produced by Mendelsohn or his subcontractor(s), as it would seem unwieldy to take them in already cut form and then have them individually printed on the back. I suppose complete blank-backed sheets could have been ordered and then printed (not stamped) but that would have been a hassle I assume most advertisers would have wanted to avoid.

[Hankphenom]

Originally Posted by Leon

Burdick, in his final edition (1960) of the ACC gave the superset of M101 the name of "Sporting News" and then went on to classify them as 1-9....He said the -4s and -5s were "Premium Cards". Us collectors gave the M101-4/5 series the "The Sporting News" name. They should really be called "Premium Cards" which would be a bit more correct imo.....AND to think, a short 15 yrs ago the backs weren't even collected too much.

The designation "Premium" meaning a giveaway or sendaway rather than thru a direct means of distribution, I assume. Did the Burdick numbering 1-9 reflect the known backs at the time, or were they all Sporting News?

[nolemmings]

The m101 sequential numbering refers to variety of sets issued over the years 1899-1939, all of which were attributed (incorrectly) to The Sporting News. All of these identified TSN on the "cards" themselves except m101-4, m101-5 and m101-6 (m101-1, 2, 7, 8 and 9 are large supplements, m101-3 are postcards and m101-6 are larger than postcard photographs). Of these three, only m101-4 is connected to TSN.