ah yes, the Hager book. Not a horrible reference, if you can get past the lousy spelling and grammar. The colored pictures are nice and there is interesting data--the author's reputation and history are also "colorful".
In his defense, some of the info listed here was commonly believed to be true at the time of publication, but has since been corrected. This particular listing is chock full of inaccuracies. First, m101-5 was issued in 1916, not 1915, and as noted before, was not issued by The Sporting News. While the set was used by other companies, Weil Baking and Globe Stores were not among them (those ad backs are on m101-4 only). The set did not include Federal League players- although a couple may be seen wearing Fed Lg. uniforms, all cards are captioned with either National or American League teams.
Still, if you look closely at the TSN back shown in Hager's book, you can see how it differs from that fake on ebay-- note the horizontal lines that set apart the second and fifth lines of text, for example. Again, looking at archived auctions from the popular auction houses should also provide you with information to help you spot these fakes.
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You're talking a lot, but you're not saying anything
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If we are to have another contest in the near future of our national existence, I predict that the dividing line will not be Mason and Dixon's but between patriotism and intelligence on the one side, and superstition, ambition and ignorance on the other.- Ulysses S. Grant, 18th US President.
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