1921 Schapira Bros. Candy Babe Ruth - population of each card
 

The 1921 Schapira Ruth set was issued on two panels of each box of their candy. As far as I have seen of the full boxes and what I have read, one panel features Babe's portrait, and the other panel on the opposite side featured one of the other 5 non-portrait Ruth designs. A redemption offer upon the portrait panels identifies that 250 of the portrait panels could be sent in to receive an autographed Babe Ruth ball. The portrait panel has two variations, one that has arrows that run from the top at the "Send 250 of These Pictures" line on both left and right sides, down to point directly at Babe's portrait, while the other variation does not have these arrows. To me it makes sense that the non-arrow Portrait version was printed first, and then the arrow version replaced it to make it clear to the customer that they should only send in the portraits for redemption. Sending in 250 of these portraits would have been a challenge to pull off, so I doubt too many autographed balls went out the door.

I was curious if the population on the PSA and SGC reports would roughly be in this same 5 portrait to 1 non-portrait ratio that would theoretically occur if these candy boxes were issued with one portrait and one non-portrait panel. So I checked both reports, and here is the population of each of the 7 different cards that I found, shown below as PSA/SGC/Total:


Portrait w/arrows - 70/85/155

Portrait no/arrows - 10/0/10

Cleared the Bags - 12/8/20

Home Run - 8/8/16

Over the Fence - 14/18/32

They Passed Him - 6/8/14

Waiting for a High One - 16/22/38


I believe that a certain amount of the Portrait no/arrows card have not been identified by the two grading companies, which is especially evident by the fact that SGC has zero "no arrows" in their population report.

285 total cards are on the reports. 165 are Portraits (both arrow and non-arrow), which is approximately 58% of the total. In theory this amount should be 50% portraits and 50% of non-portrait cards (total of the 5 non-portrait designs). Perhaps it is reasonable to conjecture that this difference could be accounted for by many kids starting to accumulate the portraits but coming up short.

Also it is interesting that there seems to be two tiers of scarcity among the non-portrait cards, with the "Waiting for a High One" and "Over the Fence" at 38 and 32 each respectively, while the "Cleared the Bags" (20), "Home Run" (16), and "They Passed Him" (14) have significantly lower numbers. In my view, the "Waiting for a High One" and "Over the Fence" cards might have been printed at twice the level as the other three.

Just some thoughts about this interesting, Babe-centric set. Let us hear your thoughts, and perhaps see some of these cards too.

Brian

Got a couple of these from Don Hontz who is on net54. One day would like to get the set but definitely don't pop up everyday.

Absolutely love these

Memory Lane just auctioned 7 different SGC graded Ruth’s. Everyone set a new high price record. Crazy prices.

A complete box is shown below just so that everyone knows where these hand cut cards originated.

Brian (box not mine)

Holy smoky! Almost 5 figures for each of those two less common poses (Cleared the Bags and Home Run) in GOOD condition...

Brian

Blew my mind also.

Great info

Up until 2016, SGC didn't make a distinction on the Portrait variation. I specifically had them label it on the flip when I submitted my card 7 years ago.
So you will be unable to get a real estimate of the number of "Arrows vs "No Arrows" portraits from them.

Here's my set with both portrait variations.

Very nice Ruth's Great cards---nice complete set

Thanks Don!!!

What did/do they mean by they passed him?

Walked, base on balls?

Yeah, must be. Looks like he just hit a dinger but must be a walk.

Not sure about the meaning of "They Passed Him", but this card made it onto an 'Odd cards' thread a year or so ago, because it looks like the artist added a bat to a pitching follow through pose.

Brian

Here is my Home Run card, my only example from the set. It is likely in two pieces. But thanks to the miracle of a little tape on the backside, we don't have to imagine what it would look like whole.

The card is identified as a Home Run, but I like to think it would be officially scored as a double with a two base error.

Brian

Here's my contribution which shows the Cleared the Bags with a No Arrow variation of the box.

Great looking full box Babe--Congrats

Thanks Gary for posting that box. I don't remember seeing a box with the portrait - no arrows before, and it is interesting to see that one of the less common cards (Cleared the Bags) is on the other panel.

No one has mentioned my theory that I presented in the original post about my belief that the Portrait - No Arrows was issued first, and that the arrows were added after to clarify which panels needed to be sent in for the autographed ball redemption. I don't remember anyone ever mentioning this idea before...does it make sense?

Perhaps it is so obvious that only I would think it had never been thought about before.

Brian

your theory certainly sounds reasonable to me.

My one and only. These cards have really grown on me in recent years...wish I had them all!

Great cards everyone and great thread!

a little more info on the set.....I believe it is thought to be from 1921 because of this April 14, 1921 mid week pictorial showing the Bambino with the ball just like his portrait cards.

Here's another partial box from Don's link here:Link

It shows a No Arrows variation with the Waiting for a High One pose.

Thanks again Gary...I am definitely not an expert on these cards, and over the years I haven't dived too deeply into this set's knowledge pool. I like that this Portrait No Arrows box example has one of the more commonly found non-portrait cards, something that possibly indicates that all the other card panels were issued during the No Arrows printing runs.

Brian

I used to have a box before they were very valuable. :(
Great cards and ancillary items, guys. Thanks for sharing.
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