I do not believe a buyer would know that a pack contained a card from a certain set. The A&G issues were released fairly quickly in the time frame. The packs in a case almost certainly would all have cards from the same set packed in, but the packs didn't change design or anything to tell which card would be in which pack. Even if a store had a display poster in the window for a particular set, that wasn't necessarily the same set as the set in that case the store was currently pulling from on a particular day, or from the same time of packout as a case a store down the street might be selling packs from. Depending how often they ordered inventory and in what bulk at the same time, a store could have a ton all from 1 set or different sets in different cases.
N28 is from 1888, likely deep into the year. Clarkson got to his team on his card in April of 1888, coupons show the related A16 album was available as of November 1, 1888. So it was a late 1888 issue, not 1887.
N29 refers to specific events up to October of 1888, and there are ads from August of 1889 for the release of the N29 banners (from which cutouts of the 'cards' are commonly seen) and so the set is from 1889. However, the time between when 'issued' and when stores ran out of packs with those cards may have been at quite some remove and people may have been getting 'new' cards well into 1890. Baseball collectors are historically very optimistic about early dating sets ahead of research.
I'm contenting myself with collecting only the boxers and sharpshooters, but they are all gorgeous cards.
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