The "Exclusive 12" of the T205 set

[marcdelpercio]

Originally Posted by T205 GB

Umm???? If you look at some set made they had baseball as well as others. Allen and Ginter and Mayo's are a prime example. The fact that baseball series is mention leads me to believe that it is only part of a series and not an inclusive baseball set. Some cards say "400 subjects" and others say "Baseball series 400 subjects" I guess its all up for interpretation.

Well, first of all, a lot of those sets are either pre-ATC or non-ATC releases and from a different era, so I don't think that's necessarily as good a comparison as, for example, the contemporary T58 set I mentioned. Even if you do consider those sets though, that would further strengthen my point as the ad-backs (and fronts on Mayos since the backs are blank) were identical on those sets regardless of the front subject. In the case of T205s vs the military/bird series, the backs are not only an entirely different artistic format, but also feature entirely different brand ads.

[T205 GB]

None of us really know and are only speculating anyways. The fact zero cards have been found unfinished of unconfirmed players says a lot also with no documentation either. The military and bird series are the same time frame, same boarder design, and only lack bios. The bigger companies paid to be advertised on the baseball subjects while the smaller took the non important ones. Who knows really.

[Ease]

Some T42s and T205s backs side by side for comparison. Sorry no scanner

[marcdelpercio]

I would ask those who believe that these comprise one large 400 card series, why they think that the bird cards would state "Bird Series 1 to 100" on the backs? If the logic is that "Base Ball Series 400 Subjects" means that there are 400 TOTAL subjects among baseball/bird/military cards, wouldn't it follow that the bird series would state the same "400 subjects"? And the T80s also, for that matter?

Of course it's all just speculation, so I'm not saying that anybody is right or wrong here. All we have to go by is logic and circumstantial evidence. To me, it feels like these are all different releases, albeit with some obvious similarities.

[T205 GB]

The bird series was the first 100. Then military series and then the great baseball series

I do think if it was all baseball for the 400 then it would say "subjects" and not "series". The word "series" leads me to look elsewhere for the 400 thus the thought about bird and military series being included.

[Wite3]

"subjects" and "series" really does not matter to me...that is just how they designated them on certain cards...t42 is certainly related to the gold borders in that they were issued with certain packages of cigarettes and printed by the same lithographer. But, the t42 bird series is indeed 100 subjects...or a series of 100. I have a feeling that the baseball was to be extended at some point to 400 and that something happened. It could have been anything really...break up of the ATC, problems at the printer...machine issues, ink issues, etc. The gold borders were almost certainly more expensive to produce than t206s...maybe after the ATC breakup the money was not there for such a project and it was abandoned. Who knows?

I would really wish there was more information about how and why certain cards were included with certain brands. Did they feel that people that smoked certain brands would be more apt to buy them because they had baseball cards or fish cards? Was the marketing that sophisticated back then? (I suspect it was). Would love to have been in those meetings.

Joshua

[EvilKing00]

I have no basis for this but I would tend to think that there were Supposed to be 400 baseball cards. Probably the break up of the company derailed the making fot the rest of the cards. Looking at the current set there are many players, that im sure they didnt leave out on purpose.

The T80's really do have the same look to them though