Butterfinger and related sets of "cards"

[nolemmings]

Quote:
Originally Posted by oldeboo View Post
What FACTS show that ALL of the R310s were released by Curtiss/BUTTERFINGER?

Some FACTS that we know:
FACT 1. V94 O-Pee-Chee product was named BASEBALL GUM
FACT 2. Box topper from OP shows a General Gum product named BASEBALL GUM
FACT 3. Box topper from OP shows the same address for General Gum as one of the properties that Curtiss Candy operated
FACT 4. Box topper from OP describes 8x10 pictures which are, perhaps, coincidentally the same size as R310
FACT 5. Not even ONE overprinted BUTTERFINGER R310 has been found that exists in the V94 BASEBALL GUM set (wonder why that would be)
FACT 6. More R310 subjects exist than V94 BASEBALL GUM subjects (again, wonder why that would be)
FACT 7. General Gum had product names that were very, well, general, such as Movie Gum and Button Gum
FACT 8. It would be much more likely for an overprinted BUTTERFINGER to exist than a standard box topper ad which would be more disposable. It's not a stretch to say store owners would have given away used or extra BUTTERFINGER ads when new orders came in. It's also not a stretch to say the BUTTERFINGER overprint is different than a standard store ad/box topper because it so closely resembles the actual product. (call that an opinion if you wish)
FACT 9. Only a "FOXX" variation has been found in the V94 BASEBALL GUM set
FACT 10. There is a "FOXX" and "FOX" variation found in R310
FACT 11. Babe Ruth has not been confirmed with a BUTTERFINGER(Curtiss Candy) overprint
FACT 12. Wonderful hobby resources, such as the ACC, have been wrong before or incomplete
FACT 13. For a long time people in the hobby incorrectly called V94...BUTTERFINGER (sound familiar?)
FACT 14. The standard R310 has nothing printed on it to clearly identify brand
FACT 15. There have been 65 black and white photos printed on roughly 8x10 thin stock identified, with NO branding, that have been categorized as R310
FACT 16. An O-PEE-CHEE BASEBALL GUM document describes "A large 6.5x8.5 picture of your favorite baseball star"
FACT 17. The OP item describes "A large 8x10 picture of your favorite baseball star"

That's a few to start...

Is it significant that there have been plenty of overprinted BUTTERFINGERS found, but NONE of them exist in the V94 BASEBALL GUM set?
Yes, and that's an OPINION based on FACTS.

What is the likelihood that a supplemental distribution occurred from another brand that would be identical to the R310 BUTTERFINGERS?
Very high, and that's an OPINION based on FACTS.

I can form a long list of OPINIONS based on FACTS, but I'll just start with the two above.

Really curious to see the FACTS that prove R310 was exclusive to BUTTERFINGER. There are a lot of OPINIONS being formed here, but let's base them off of FACTS.




Thanks for the concise summary Trey. It lays it out well.

Jonathan,

Yes, I became familiar with the Ruth and Curtiss Company legal dispute, oh, about 35 years ago. So why haven’t you answered the question– if Butterfinger and only Butterfinger sold the R310 pictures, why is Ruth in the set? You have basically said that the OP’s ad piece could not be real because Ruth would never have allowed his picture to serve as the mail-in premium on account of his feud with Curtiss. Yet there he is in what you call the Butterfinger set, one of the Curtiss Company’s best performers. How do you explain this inconsistency?

And as for the term “boxtoppers”, I do not know that these overprint, cardboard versions of the R310 pictures were for certain placed in/on the box or whether instead they were dropped off by salesman to be used as counter or window display pieces. If you are certain then we will use your term. I am unaware of any newspaper or other advertising from the time where Butterfinger promotes the pictures–the only evidence we have that they did is these cardboard overprint pieces, which do not tell us how many to collect.

And sure, I understand that these ad overprints were not intended to be collected separately at the time, and yes the paper shortage occasioned by WWII impacted what has survived, but I find those explanations unsatisfactory. There are only 17 of 65 subjects known to have these Butterfinger ads. If as you say you at one time collected the set, then you know that there are multiples, and I mean a dozen or so for sure, of certain players like Bob O’Farrell and Tex Carleton. I stopped tracking them years ago but I am confident in saying that each of the 17 except maybe Gehrig has several copies known. It collides with the laws of probability, IMHO, to say that no examples survived for 3/4 of the subjects but that a dozen or so copies can be found for each of the rest. Put differently, it is hard to explain how there are probably 200 or so of these advertising overprints known but all of them are of 17 subjects, with ZERO known for the rest. While some more may surface in the coming years, it still butts with common sense to say that all 65 had the overprint and it is simply fate and the sands of time that took most of them out of existence. It is far more likely that not all 65 had the overprint in the first place, and if you accept that to be true, then there remains the question of whether all 65 pictures of R310 were in fact put out by Butterfinger. Maybe, maybe not.