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(Date Posted:09/08/2009 11:55:50)
I received an e-mail from Rob Lifson today that REA had received the T207 Red Cross Blackburne I once owned for their April auction. I sent Rob a reply to some questions he had, which included the following observation on T207 Red Crosses. I thought I would post these here for Hobbyists to see/ponder. I came up with the theory of a "test market" for T207 Red Cross after Rob asked if the other players (besides Lange, Blackburne and Weaver) were also White Sox players. Since there is a Ward Miller, a Chicago Cubs player, I came up with the following "test market" theory on T207 Red Cross cards.
As for T207 Red Cross examples, the Lange (found by one of the members of Aimoo/Full Count) made the 6th example known! There were the four from the Louisiana find (as mentioned in Lipset's Encyclopedia - which included the Blackburne of course), a long time collector in NJ had/has a Ward Miller and then the Lange was found (counting for six examples known). As for the find of four, Blackburne and Weaver came from that find and the other two have evidently been "lost" in name, as I never could find out who they were (in fact, when I purchased the Blackburne from Lipset, he couldn't remember the other two). So, even with the Miller, your assumption on Chicago players is still partially intact - Miller is a Cubbie, instead of a White Sox player (and quite amazing!). I had sold the Blackburne before the Lange was found, so in my research, the only two players I could confirm at that time were Buck Weaver and Blackburne unfortunately. We know the factory for Red Cross was in NJ. However, could these have been printed for distribution in Chicago as a "test run" in Red Cross Cigarettes? This might stand to reason, as we know, starting in 1910, Red Cross issued the T206 "look alikes" with their cigarettes (T215's) and this continued at least through 1913. Since the T207's were issued in 1912, which falls somewhere in the middle of the T215 distribution, it is very likely that the company might have tried a "test issue", probably in Chicago by the list of known players. I would venture to guess that, since the T215's were colored, they were more popular and the test issue did not run very long (as is evidenced by the extreme rarity of T207 Red Cross examples). It seems that it is very likely that the T207's were ONLY a test run and did not catch on - therefore, Red Cross stuck with the T215's instead with all their glorious colors. However, even though I assume the test run might have been in the Chicago area, this is ONLY a guess. Since the first four examples known to our Hobby were found in Louisiana and the Miller is in NJ, it kinda scatters the locations. Of course, many things could happen over the years - people move, give cards away, trade, sell, etc., so, even though we know where these five examples (of the six known) originated to our Hobby, we don't really know where they originally originated.
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Ahhh, the PERFECT avatar has been found. It is for all the Net 54 clique who bash me and complain about me defending myself here! :) | 
