J=K Dating Question
 

We recently secured an SGC graded example of Niles from the J=K series.

Whilst SGC indicates that card was issued in 1912, www.baseballreference.com indicates that Niles last year in the majors was 1910.

On our example Niles is pictured in a Boston uniform, albeit, the card says he is a member of the Cleveland team.

Can anyone explain the dating discrepancy? What have other "type collectors" uncovered from the J=K samples that they own.

Thank you in advance.


Bruce Dorskind
America's Toughest Want List

Great thread, Bruce. It's the one type card that I've never seen up for sale of Bill.

Rawn

Bruce, good question. I imagine the 1912 date came simply from the fact that Hugh Bedient is in the set. He first appeared in the majors in 1912 for the Red Sox and was their big rookie sensation that year. Unfortunately for Hugh his Major League career was over in 1915. He is a tough one to find any type of cards for, and I would love to add his J=K card to my collection.

As a general rule, with set dating it is never a good idea to go by the players last year in baseball or for a particular team. Rather, the best way to secure a date for a set is to find a player (like Bedient) that first played for a particular team.

An example of a very confusing set is the Holsum Bread set. I have cards of players that ended their career or left a team after the 1917 & 1918 seasons, however, in the same set there is a card of Amos Strunk w/ Chicago, a team he didn't start to play for until mid-1920.

Anyways, I hope this helps.
-Rhett

Perhaps these instances of players who didn't necessarily play at the same time indicate that some of these sets might have been multi-year issues? T206 was a set that was produced over a 3-year period, some hobby guides group the various Exhibit sets together (i.e. 1939-'46 Salutations, 1947-'66), why couldn't Holsum or J=K have been issued over a few years' time?

Also in the set are cards of Hick Cady, Jeff Tesreau and Marty Krug, all of which made their Major League Debuts in 1912.
-Rhett