Dating an M114 Baseball Premium?

[doug.goodman]

Originally Posted by FrankWakefield

You and I could print a 'card' depicting that 1923 team, give them to Net54 folks and try sell a few on eBay... and when we got done we'd be distributing a 2015 produced card.

With that in mind...
The Vintage Baseball Cards catalog shows that as a 1923 issue. I have doubts about that, but it is possible. I think Baseball Magazine would have gotten those out in early 1924 at best.

One thing to do is look at the ads for the premiums in Baseball Magazines from about August 1923 through mid 1924. Look at the ads to see what premiums were being advertised. That might be a clue. Problem with that is that sometimes premiums were advertised before they were available. Before the
Standard Catalog listed these by year, I had started making a list of the premiums advertised, issue by issue. I stopped about 1/4th of the way in, because the Standard Catalog got their listing done. A few old collectors assured me that I'd find a few ads that showed never issued premiums, especially in the last few years of the magazine. Point is that you might see this 1923 team premium in a 1923 ad even though it wasn't produced and distributed until 1924.

So I think it's a 1924 issue, very early 1924. I think most folks will deem that a 1923 issue.

I completely agree with Frank, except I would call it a 1924 issue. I seriously doubt that BBM would have gotten them out in 1923. There are many team issues in the M114 "Set" that refer to the team being champion and although the SC lists them all as the year of their win, I would bet that they were all released the next year.

Doug