1923 Exhibit Catalogs, Order Forms etc.!!

[Exhibitman]

Fred, thanks for sharing! Your post illustrates something I'd long theorized about but hadn't definitively known until now. First, it shows the 1921 boxing set offered in 1923. Second, the 1923 boxing set is listed as 32 cards but I have documented 46 cards with 1923 copyrighted backs, including two Dempseys, plus another card with no date but clearly issued in 1923 [Wills]. My theory has been that the 1921 and 1922 cards were made into 1924 with the 1923 issues also printed in 1924, and that the boxing cards were added and deleted to the mixes of dated issues in 1922 and 1923 on an ad hoc basis. That is why you see so many more 1921s than 1922s and more 1922s and 1923s, and why certain fighters are so difficult to find within those runs--they were SPs. It also confirms what we've long assumed about the baseball cards, which is that there are 128 cards overall, consisting of 59 'new' cards and the rest of the set being composed of reprinted cards from 1921-1922.

Brad, I have to differ with you on your conclusion as to the vintage of the metal machines. The Ideal vendor, the two-slot model with the inset frontpiece and an all-metal design, carries a patent date of 4-21-25 on its front. I do not think the company would design and patent an item then not use it for five years. Also, you cannot take a 1923 document and assume that nothing changed until 1930 or later based on it. What we need are more circulars like Fred's, from later years. Finally, and this is a nit, the flyer Fred posted states that the Ideal is finished in mahogany, not oak.