[G1911]

Conventionally, the story is that N28 is an 1887 issue and N29/N43 are from 1888.

For N28, it has been long known that the 1887 story is a fiction somebody made up and has just been repeated since. It is now frequently listed with either year. 1887 is impossible, as John Clarkson is pictured with Boston, a team which purchased him in April of 1888.

There is usually significant lag between the last date provable on the cards themselves and the actual date of issue. In some T sets it's as small as just a couple months, usually more than this. At the absolute earliest, N28 is a mid 1888 set, likely actually a bit later than this.

While N28 is now shown as 1888 ~half the time, N29/N43 are still usually listed as 1888; following the original story. PSA, Standard Catalog, SGC, etc. list it as 1888 with some minor sellers/sites using 1889 now, seemingly knocking back a year because of the N28's.

N29/N43 is a good set to play with here, as many of the cards of non-baseball subjects, who didn't play team sports that give us club names to use to date range, mention very specific achievements. I took all 50 cards and noted the dates for those events I could find primary sources testifying to. These dates run through late September of 1888.

This means the set was almost certainly issued in early 1889 or later, perhaps significantly later. I have discussed the dating with multiple members over the years and others have pointed to 1889 as well, but I'm not aware of anyone compiling the actual dating information here. Apologies if similar has been shown before.

I'm wondering if anyone can fill in some of the blanks here, or might have other primary sources as to the series' issue time, an advertisement etc.