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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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?
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Interesting question David. My guess would be in that range.
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?
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:
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:
