I would doubt the borders served as an indicator of distribution or geography, as they are just a slightly different aesthetic design choice. It may indicate connections between designers and/or places of printing. They are almost all certainly printed in the NY area; though the myth that the ATC T cards all were done in the American Lithography building in NYC has been busted, we haven't tied any cards to a lithographer outside the northeast. Which shadow subsidiary did which job is mostly a mystery still. It ranges from possible to likely that some sets were done at multiple locations. T210 has more series than any other ATC issue, it wouldn't be surprising if they were done up in multiple locations.
I need to go read the law here, but if these were distributed nationally, as Old Mill and Red Sun were national brands, the choice of minor league subjects from the south may have been to avoid the New York privacy law that forced them to go get contracts and face lawsuits if they didn't. People who played for NL and AL teams or northeastern leagues were from or travelled to the state giving them the problem. The T210 and T211 subjects probably were not covered by the law and did not require releases. Lower effort and lower cost baseball pictures. As the salesman says in the News and Observer, more baseball pictures were in great demand.
|