[FrankWakefield]

I have a few 1914 Cracker Jack cards. Cards that are among 1-72 show the 10,000,000; cards among 73-144 show 15,000,000. I think Mr. Lipset mistyped the demarcation point. He got a handful of things wrong, some possibly by typos, he got a bunch of stuff right.


It is an illogical leap to think that there were 5 million cards of 1 through 72, and then 10 million more of 73 through 144.

I think what makes more sense is at the beginning they planned a series of 144 cards with a total issue of 10 million. And they planned on printing cards 1-72 first. Possibly as one bunch, or maybe multiples. By the time they were ready to add cards 73 through 144, they reconsidered their printing quantities, and upped the total to 15 million. That could still be 7.5 mil of cards 1-72 and 7.5 mil of cards 73-144, or some other ratio. I don't recall any premium for cards 73 through 144 from years past, nor do I notice one now. I think they just had good sales and printed more cards, approximately the same quantity for each number.

There is a premium for the 1915 Cracker Jack cards 145 through 176; but that's something for a different thread.

I do believe they distributed millions of these cards. I think many were thrown away shortly after the package was opened. I think some were pitched when the next year's set came out. Some were discarded because they wore out, some pitched when the collecting kid moved out, some went to paper drives for the war efforts... I agree with fkw above that they are tough, a low percentage survived.