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1921 Haffner Bread Distribution
Thought I would share some info I found that I do not believe has been covered here, related to the 1921 Haffner’s Bread cards.
The cards were distributed by Haffner’s Star Bakery of Fort Wayne, Indiana. The bakery held a contest, with prizes distributed in the end to the kids who turned in the most player and manager cards with no duplicates. They were wrapped one per loaf, and although the card backs promote the company’s Big Tayto Loaf Bread, many of the newspaper ads stated the cards could also be found in their loaves of Hol-Tayto and American Maid Bread. The first ad claimed that $50.00 in various baseball gear would be awarded, but the following day’s ad promised $75.00 of such gear-- baseballs, bats, gloves and masks. A total of 43 prizes were to be awarded–they were displayed in the bakery’s Show Window throughout the promotion for the kids to see. Here is a bullet point summary about the bakery's advertising– I will attach scans of some ads in a later post:
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Great, great work, Todd. Thank you.
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Excellent work agreed
Now we have to find those cards Dibbs on the Ruth :D |
Here's a pic:
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Great research Todd. The fact that these cards were distributed regionally, coupled with the knowledge we now have that a contest was involved that encouraged kids to send in cards, makes it fairly obvious why they are so difficult to come by. It reminds me of the scarce E123 Curtis Ireland cards and their contest.
Here is a scruffy Charles Hollacher, my lone 'Big-Tayto-Loaf' example. Brian |
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Excellent research. My Great Great uncle Elmer Miller is in the E121 set so makes me wonder if there is a Haffners of him out there.
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Great info. Thanks for sharing that Todd.
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Great job Todd! So Ruth was only available for one day in the Ft Wayne Indiana area. Pretty amazing.
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Keep 'em coming
Thanks guys. Brian, thanks for the scan— I hope others will post theirs here too. The pop reports show cards for 79 different subjects, and I have scans of each (most from Heritage) to confirm. I also have some scans from ungraded cards, but none of anyone not already in the pop reports–the checklist for which follows. Incidentally, I note that both SGC and PSA incorrectly attribute this set to 1922.
Any additions to the following list would be appreciated– please provide supporting front/back scans. Ken, sorry, but no Elmer Miller sightings so far. ALEXANDER, GROVER BAGBY, JIM BAKER, J. FRANKLIN BANCROFT, DAVE BODIE, PING BURNS, GEORGE BUSH, OWEN CAREY, MAX COBB, TY COLLINS, EDDIE DAUBERT, JAKE DAUSS, GEORGE DEAL, CHARLES DOAK, BILL DONOVAN, BILL EVERS, JOHNNY FABER, URBAN GARDNER, W.L. GLEASON, "KID" GOWDY, HANK GRANEY, JACK GRIFFITH, TOM GROH, HEINIE HEILMANN, HARRY HOLKE, WALTER HOLLACHER, CHARLIE HOOPER, HARRY HORNSBY, ROGERS JACOBSON, WM. C. JENNINGS, HUGHIE JOHNSON, WALTER JOHNSTON, JAMES JUDGE, JOE KELLY, GEORGE KERR, DICK KILDUFF, P.J. KILLEFER, BILL LAVAN, JOHN LEIBOLD, “NEMO” MAMAUX, AL MARANVILLE, “RABBIT” MAYS, CARL MCGRAW, JOHN MCINNIS, STUFFY MILAN, CLYDE MILLER, OTTO MORTON, GUY MYERS, “HY” O'NEILL, STEVE PECKINBAUGH, ROGER PFEFFER, JEFF PIPP, WALTER RICE, E.C. RIXEY, JR., EPPA ROUSH, ED. RUTH, “BABE” SCHALK, RAY SCHANG, WALTER SCHUPP, FERD SCOTT, EVERETT SEVEREID, HANK SISLER, GEORGE SPEAKER, TRIS STOCK, MILTON STRUNK, AMOS TERRY, ZEB THOMAS, CHESTER TONEY, FRED TYLER, GEORGE VAUGHN, JIM VEACH, BOB VITT, OSCAR WAMBSGANSS, W. WHEAT, ZACH WHITTED, GEORGE WILLIAMS, FRED WINGO, IVY WOOD, JOE YOUNG, “PEP” |
Great job on the research! I love this kind of stuff. So how many of each card do you think were printed? The population of Fort Wayne was about 86,000 in 1920.
I wonder how many loaves of bread this one bakery was selling each day? Probably not enough, which is why they ran a contest to try to increase their sales. I’d guess maybe 500 - 1000 loaves a day? |
Excellent work, Todd! Thank you for sharing that!
I was following the recent Haffner's lots in HA (since I was/am interested in the Sisler) and thought they went strong. Congrats to whomever won them. |
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Fantastic and fascinating research, Todd! The 79 Haffner's Bread cards that very recently surfaced in the hobby and were auctioned by Heritage were both bad news and good news to me.
Bad news in that a WaJo card is one of these 79 cards. This meant my raw example of this card (pictured below), which has been in my collection for many years, is no longer a 1-of-1 card, much to my chagrin. Good news in that a previously unknown Sam Rice card is one of these 79 cards, as I am working on a master set of Rice's cards. Heritage included this Rice card in its auction lot of 72 Haffner's cards, which I had hoped would be won by a dealer who would break up this lot and sell the cards individually. However, I have heard this lot was won by a collector. If this collector is a Net54 member, or if anyone knows how to contact this collector, kindly PM or email me at ekehl333@aol.com. Thanks in advance. |
Thought I'd give this one last push to the front page, to see if there are other Haffner's out there (great card, Val) and to perhaps inspire folks to research the other related sets from 1920-21, such as Clark's Bread and Gassler's.
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It is possible that Ruth, Cobb et al were available more than just one day–that they were randomly inserted for a period of time at the beginning and then the bakery decided to spark sales by making them “for sure” available on a certain date(s). Somewhat strange to me is that the populations of these cards are not noticeably greater for players featured on a particular day, especially the McGraw, who was the subject of a contest within a contest, so to speak. If in fact the bakery made only one player available per day as of mid-October, you would think those subjects would be more plentiful than the rest, yet pop reports top out at 3 for Cobb and Speaker, with a large majority showing only one example and very few with two. Three is hardly a glut. Also interesting is that the set may be complete at 80; if so, the mystery remains--who is the one unreported card? :confused: I note that Holsum Type 1 and Holsum Type 2 also have just under 80 confirmed subjects. Perhaps the non-American Caramel sets stuck to the plan as originally stated? Finally, here is one of the early ads (all from the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette), claiming that kids could find a card of Bill Wambsganss, who went to college there: https://photos.imageevent.com/imover..._29__1921_.jpg Imagine their disappointment when learning that the card does not depict Wamby, who unsurprisingly was not a left-handed middle infielder, but instead Fritz Coumbe, not even with Cleveland at the time: https://photos.imageevent.com/imover...size/42891.jpg |
Great research and thread! I guess we know that the bakery manager tossed the cards that were returned otherwise there might be a few more out there.
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This thread deserves a friendly bump.
These are from my previous collection... https://luckeycards.com/pw5751varietybacks.jpg |
Cutshaw
Hi Todd, great investigative work, thanks for sharing your efforts!
edit - just realized you said Haffner and I'm posting a Holsum, so removing my scan :) |
How can a whole grain bread be too grainy?:confused:
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