A question about 1914 Cracker Jacks

[Sean]

Originally Posted by spec

One reason the 1914 Cracker Jack Del Pratt commands a higher price than Owens and Shotton is the fact that the artwork for his 1915 card was changed to a portrait, while the Owens and Shotton images remained the same. Thus, folks like this oldtimer, who completed this set back in the day as a mixture of 1914 and 1915 cards needed both Pratts. The same was true of Mathewson. So demand is a factor here, as well as scarcity.

This is correct. Many collectors combine the 1914 and 1915 sets and don't distinguish between the two when assembling a "Cracker Jack" set, since the fronts of the cards are interchangable. However for some reason the pictures of Pratt and Mathewson changed from 1914 to 1915, so both cards are needed to complete the set. A collector who combines the sets would consider the pop report for Cady (and all others except Pratt and Matty) to include both the 1914 Cady and the 1915 Cady, rather than just the 1914. This way the Pratt and Matty from 1914 would be much more rare than any other cards.