Pre "The Other War"
 

There seems to be a clear consensus that the term "PreWar" refers to cards issued in 1941 and earlier. That's an easy call since that's when the US entered WWII and paper rationing pretty much ended all but a few outlier sets.

But what about World War I? There doesn't really seem to have been any down turn in card manufacturing then. The US entered in late 1914 and it lasted until late 1918. The Standard Catalog lists over 50 sets from 1915-1917 (oddly only one strip card started in 1918) and a few in 1919 before things pick back up in 1920

So is there such a thing as Pre War I? If so, when does it begin?

I believe the US officially entered in 1917. That could explain it.

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Bingo. Congress declared war on Germany in April of 1917. The 6th to be exact. The armistice was signed on Nov 11, 1918.

The US took a lot of casualties in our short, less than 2 years of involvement "over there". The war had been going on since 1914. Sad that it is largely forgotten today. Eddie Grant comes to mind. I know there were other ballplayers who didn't make it back. Hank Gowdy was in a lot of combat, and he did come back. He was in the famous 42nd Infantry, the "Rainbow Division".

Even with the signing of the armistice, we still had troops facing combat into the 1920s.

True, but unlikely impacting the printing of baseball cards.

Production-wise, WW1 or "The Great War" or "The World War" or "The War To End All Wars" had virtually no effect in the US. What was significantly affected was transportation; the railroads were mobilized under national control by the US Railroad Administration. That proved to be unmitigatedly disastrous up into the 1920s. There were some shortages, but things like paper, cardboard, cards...those things were unaffected.

Another thing to keep in mind, in addition to the shorter duration of US involvement in WWI, is the fact that in WWI, the US did not face the threat of actual attack. It was 10 years before Charles Lindbergh proved the Atlantic Ocean could be crossed by an airplane, and ships weren't really a long-range threat.

WWII proved, via the attack on Pearl Harbor, that trans-oceanic attacks were possible, and German U-boats (submarines) were encountered off the US east coast. Also, the Germans were developing the V-2 rocket that could reach North America. That, and the longer duration of the war, necessitated the paper drives and everything else that served to curtail wartime card production.


Steve

The V2 had a range of 200 miles.

That may be, but it was only a matter of time before Wernher von Braun and his team perfected it. They did make the V-2, the first man-made object to leave Earth's atmosphere.

Steve

"Once they go up, who cares where they come down?
That's not my department," said Werner von Braun.
---Tom Lehrer

Ahh, Professor Tom Lehrer. Who can forget such classics as "Be Prepared," "Poisoning Pigeons in the Park," "The Irish Ballad," ...

So, if there is a definite break in card production due to the war , why isn't "preWWI" considered a collecting subset?


We see to only live in a two world market. There is such a difference in cards from 1988-1911 at least that there should be a separate qualifier for that at least.

There was no production break for WW1. WW2 there most definitely was. That's why this forum is called Vintage (WWII & Older).

I actually think 19th century stuff gets treated as its own separate market/subset. Burdick did give the entire era its own designation as N cards. In which case Pre-WW I cards would cover about 16 - 17 years, which seems a little too short to designate as its own separate collecting era maybe?

He started out in the 1939 catalog without having any letters before the numbers...

https://luckeycards.com/n284.jpg

I would agree with this.
Regardless we have great cards from many years pre WW1 and pre WW2.
Pick a name is not what is important to me as the great cards and sets from these times

That's a pretty cool "Pre War" card, Leon. Gold Coin cards are interesting to me for their use of color. That Wood card is particularly cool for his horizontal depiction.

Technically also pre-Spanish American War

Hmmm, was always under the impression the N designation was eventually attributed to him. Who/where did it actually come from then?