What if..Burdick had classified T206's with respect to their individual 15 T-brands ?

[barrysloate]

Just to add to my previous post:

A set such as E93, for example, was conceived as a set from the outset. There were thirty cards planned, all were carefully listed on the back of each card, any collector who cared knew which cards he needed, all of them were readily available, and no more were added in a later series. That is the definition of a set.

T206 was never issued as a set in that traditional sense. When the first series of cards were released in the fall of 1909, nobody had any idea there would eventually be some 523 cards, nobody knew there would be subsequent series, nobody knew that additional tobacco brands would join in the promotion, there was no rhyme or reason to the number of poses a player would have, etc. T206 was not a planned set, but an evolution. It just got bigger and more complex as time passed. Do you think any kid collecting back then knew if he had a complete set? Only collectors a generation or two later were able to piece it all together.

And here we are, a century later, still debating it.