T205 production time

[conor912]

So I was reading an old Lew Lipset book today and in the 1911 T202 section he states that there are only two players (Joe Wood and Walt Blair) who are in the T202 set but not T205. He then goes on to say that his theory for this is that although Wood and Blair started their careers in 1907-08, the photographs for the T205 set had already been taken by then. This would imply that the T205 set took at least 4-5 years to produce. However, there are several players, including Zack Wheat, who debuted after Wood and Blair but somehow made it into the T205 set, so it appears his logic doesn't hold up. Does anyone have any more info on this? I find it hard to believe that they'd spend that long on a set that was essentially going to be given away for free, but I guess I wouldn't be shocked if it took that long to do all of that art work and design.....however, it still wouldn't explain how players who debuted in 1909-10 made it into the set but two guys from 1907-08 didn't.