Of Demmitt & O'Hara......St. Louis Variations.

[tedzan]

Originally Posted by z28jd

Ted, do you really think they stopped printing the cards with PB backs, or just because it was Polar Bear only, that is why there are only about 500 of each card? I don't think they stopped them, I think that is just how many are left. I don't think you would be able to pick out a bunch of common players and find more than 500 Polar Bear cards for all of them.

I think there is approx 500 of them left because they were no-name players, not worth a nickel the first 50 years they existed and only made with one back. There are 250 subjects with Polar Bear backs, meaning if they were pulled, and accounting for Hall of Famers being more likely to be saved, therefor more plentiful, you think there are about 250,000 Polar Bear cards out there(1,000 of each)? I think you could say 500x250 and get 125,000 shows that they probably weren't taken out of the PB run at any point because I highly doubt there are more than even 50k PB backs in existence today

John

My research indicates that the 1st POLAR BEAR (PB) press run (350-Only series) was limited. Large surveys (15,000 - 20,000 cards) of T206's indicate that the subsequent
PB press runs of the 350/460 series T206's and the 460-Only series T206's were were certainly more prolific.

Approx. 135 subjects (of 208) from the 350-Only series were printed with the PB back. Whereas, all 109 subjects of the combined 350/460 series and 460-Only series were
printed with the PB back.

So, if I'm understanding correctly what you are suggesting, I agree that American Litho. printed the same number of Demmitt (St Louis American) and O'Hara St Louis Nat'l)
cards as they did the other 350-Only cards. And, your 500 number (on the high side) sounds good to me


TED Z