Cracker Jack Questions
 

I have been a collector of T206s and know many of the nuances of that issue, but recently I have come back to Cracker Jacks. I have a couple of questions:

1.) Why the change in 1915 of inverting the backs of the cards?
2.) Why do some 1914s denote "10,000,000" and others "15,000,000?"
3.) Why do some of the 1914s have a different font for "144" on the backs?

1) My understanding was this was related to CJ issuing the book as well and the original design was for the cards to be glued into the book with the glue at the top of the card; that way the card could be flipped up and the bio would be able to be read.
2) I believe cards 1-87 read 10m while 88-144 read 15m...heard some randon theories on this but dont recall hearing soemthing concrete
3) Never heard that one before...

Follow up
 

As far as the "album" for the 1915s, does anyone have pictures of this?

See below for the two fonts. The top seems consistent with the rest of the type, whereas the second is more italic. Just curious.

Ditto for your first two questions, and as for #3, I too had never heard of that, but your pics reveal something interesting. In fact, I may have to crack out my set tonight and see if the '15 CJs exhibit the same font variations.

Thanks for sharing.

Don't collect 'em
 

I noticed that the word "Stars" is capitalized in the second photo, but not the first.

Are those two scans of the same player?

Wow....you can still learn something new about our old cardboard treasures.....I never noticed this.

My three #134 Marsans' have the non-italicized "144".

Which card is which?

Thx,

Mark

I am not a CJ collector but I'm reading this thread and I'm just thinking how awesome this freakin' site is, all the tidbits of info shared in every collecting niche...someone should be compiling all this info and write a book. 1, 2, 3 - not it!

Griffins - I was hoping you would show up. NIce album, I remember reading your posts awhile back on upgrading and you sold you other album.

4reals - there is a book coming out next fall I believe...coffee table style with pictures but a lot of information and heavily researched.

+1. A Wikipedia-like repository for vintage bb card info would be supercalifragilisticxbalidocious (sp?) (in other words, fantastic)!
Val

bump......

Still would like to know how many people have the capital S in stars and how many people have the small s in stars

Very interesting with the capital 'S' and lower case 's'. I checked my 130 1914 CJ's tonight and found only the following cards with the lower case 's":

#1 Knabe
#18 Evers
#25 Simon
#41 Leach
#45 Luderus
#56 Milan
#59 Gessler
#66 Lajoie
#70 Clarke

There are still 12 cards that I don't own and there are two additional cards that are in the mail to me and can't comment on, but it is interesting that all of the lower case 's' cards seem to be in the first half of the set. Perhaps somebody could comment on the cards that I don't own yet:

Connie Mack
Reb Russell
Chief Bender
Chick Gandil
Ty Cobb
John McGraw
Jay Cashion
Honus Wagner
Christy Matthewson
Frank Schulte
Ad Brennan
Hub Perdue
Branch Rickey
Eugene Packard

I hope this helps to shed light on an interesting finding.

My Jay Cashion is uppercase.

I have two cards of number 60 Zeider one has a small s and the other a large S check scan. Could mean two printings. RobAttachment 59878

My '14 Matty has a Capitol S

http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p58/kelholt/002.jpg

Wish I had a Matty

Went thru my '14s that I have on-hand:
Unless noted otherwise, all are Big S with no italics 144
#1 (small s)
#2
#3
#5
#5
#7 (italic 144)
#8
#8
#9
#13
#14 (italic 144)
#16
#16
#18 (small s)
#21 (italic 144)
#21 (italic 144)
#23
#24
#27
#27
#28
#29
#31 (italic 144)
#33
#34
#36
#37
#38
#40
#45 (small s)
#47
#49
#50 (italic 144)
#51
#56 (small s)
#58
#60
#62
#63
#65
#70 (small s)
#77
#94
#119
#131
#140

So the ones that I have with small "s" are the same as Barry's. So far no cards yet with both small "s" and italics 144.

Rob
:)

My WaJo has a capital "S" and no italics.

I have number 60 with both

Any one else have a small s

My #60 1914 has a small s.

Interesting finding this old thread on CJ back variations!
I just went through my '14 CJs (I do not own a complete set) and have noted the following with italicized 144 and a big S in Stars:
#7 Collins
#44 Tesreau

These cards have normal 144 and the small s in stars:
#41 Leach
#45 Luderus
#59 Gessler

My remaining cards all have the normal 144 and a big S in Stars. All the ones I've seen with the variations have come from the first half of the set 1-72 (10,000,000 pictures).

So far mine have matched what Barry and Rob G. posted

1914 Plank #6 and Marquard #43 both Capital S and non-italic.

#39 Gandil - Normal 144 and small s

The "15,000,000" versions start at 73...which is the second series of CJ's. Interesting that the stats on the back listing 10 million and 15 million (indicating 5M of the second print run) match up with the observation that there are about half as many of series 2 as series 1's. Never understood why there isn't more of a distinction between the two series...though everyone knows the higher series is harder.

Not sure about the mysterious SPs...though I've never entirely bought into them as a concept...even though I'm sure people do believe in them.

For the record...my 50 or so 1914's in my mixed set all agree with the printing variations listed...I don't think any have been found with different versions for the same player.

Mac

PSA pop reports show cards 1-72 (10,000,000 pictures including both Bresnahan versions) account for about 61.4% of the graded examples and cards 73-144 (15,000,000 pictures) account for the remaining 38.6%. So there are definitely fewer graded examples of the second half of the set currently available.

There is always something new to learn in the old cads.

And a '14 Jennings, I no longer own, from my first collection...

https://luckeycards.com/pe1451crackerjacksjennings.jpg