M101-4 / M101-5

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Posted By: Rhett

In this set #'s 1-7, 65-71, 141-153, 198-200 are the exact same card in both sets. The pictures are the same, and there is absolutely no way to distinguish the one set from the other, in effect making #151 Babe Ruth what many would consider a Double Print. The only way you can be absolutely sure that these cards are from one set or the other would be to have one of the regional backs (Altoona Tribune, Burgess-Nash, Globe, Herpolsheimers, etc., etc.) on the cards that can be absolutely dated to one set or the other, due to having only been issued in one of the two sets. There are 17 players in each set that are found only in that set, for example M101-5 has a Jim Thorpe, Bresnahan, Chance, and Marsans while the the M101-4 has Bender, Griffith, Gandil, and Cobb.

It has always bothered me that both the Beckett Almanac and SCD list the players found on the same card #'s in each set at different prices, do they know something that everyone else in the world doesn't? Also, having experience with this set it is obvious that M101-4 are far more common than the M101-5's yet the SCD book has M101-4's as being more valuable (I am going by what is in the 2002 SCD, not sure if the 2003 has changed this or not, as I only buy a new SCD every 2-3 years or so). In my humble opinion if you own a Ruth it is far more likely that it was originally issued with the M101-4 set than M101-5, even though they have almost all been slabbed M101-5 to make them his "rookie."