Card Print Amount Questions

[Archive]

Posted By: Dan Beemsterboer

This may seem like an odd question, but I have always been curious on the print amounts for certain card series. Ever since I saw the back of the 1914 Cracker Jack card the question been in the back of my mind. The Cracker Jack Cards state that the first run was 10,000,000 picture cards. Does anyone think that this many cards were produced? I guess the second question would be if they produced this many how many currently survive, 10%, 25%, 50%? This question could pertain to any of the early T, E and W Card series. For my specific collection, I would be interested in knowing what the print totals were for the Sporting Life M116 Cards, B - 18 Blankets (I know the red infield variations have very few examples and would be interested in knowing how many of each actually exist, I have only ever seen one for sale), and the 1921 Exhibits. I know there are probably not any definite answers, but would be interested in what some of the members of this forum might think.

[Archive]

Posted By: Fred C

That would be some awesome information to find but I doubt the numbers were published/recorded like they did for coin mintage. It's probably a good thing these numbers are available. Interesting question though. I think I've seen previous threads where the board tried to list the T and E cards by scarcity order.

[Archive]

Posted By: davidcycleback

The 10 million was a P.T. Barnum number to impress the kiddies. Cracker Jack probably also wrote that you could see through clothes with their X-ray glasses.

[Archive]

Posted By: Dan

It is interesting that they would advertise that on the back of the cards. I find it hard to believe that they would even remotely think they would produce that many cards.

[Archive]

Posted By: Frank Wakefield

I've always kinda believed it...


They must have sold a lot of Cracker Jack. 10 million cards would be just under 70,000 sets of 144. What a cheap premium for them to include in the boxes. I have no idea what the revenue / sales / cash flow was for the company, but 10 million seemed possible to me. They'd have to sell into the millions of boxes to keep the business alive. How much was a box of Cracker Jack? If they made a penny a box and if they sold 10 million boxes in a year, that's only $100,000 of profit. Not much for a big business.

[Archive]

Posted By: Frank Wakefield

On page 77 of Andrew F. Smith's book, Peanuts, The Illustrious History of the Goober Pea...

it says that in 1926 they sold 138 million boxes of Cracker Jack.

So that 10 million number seems believable to me.


Their largest pre-WW2 profit was just over $700,000 in 1928. So maybe they're making 1/2 cent a box.

Boxes were first used for Cracker Jack in 1899, coupons for prizes were introduced in 1910, and a prize in every box in 1912. These cards would have been a cheap prize in 1914...