1921 Herpolsheimer’s Origins Explained, Once and For All
We have written extensively about the 1921 Herpolsheimer’s set for years, but they have been front and center in our Fall, 2023 auction due to the “Band-Aid Box Find,” a group of 39 newly-discovered 1921 Herpolsheimer’s cards, including Babe Ruth. Up until this discovery, just one example of each of 69 or 70 (depending on who you ask) cards were known, and nothing was known about how – or if – the cards were ever distributed. The working theory among many collectors was that the cards were likely some sort of prototype that were never actually issued.
The discovery of the Band-Aid Box Find in 2018 introduced 39 new cards into the hobby, many of which became the second-known examples, including the Ruth. These cards made it, in our opinion, far more likely that the cards were actually distributed in the hobby, rather than just developed as proofs or prototypes. Last month, we wrote “In our opinion, this discovery dramatically increases the likelihood that the cards were actually distributed to the public somehow through the Grand Rapids store, and are simply unbelievably rare.”
Thanks to some extraordinary research on the part of hobbyist Steve Dawson, we now know that the cards were advertised and distributed by the Herpolsheimer store, in the spring and early summer of 1921. Steve discovered a couple of print advertisements, beginning with this one, and with that information, we were able to discover several more and fill in some blanks.
The Herpolsheimer Company department store was, at its largest, a ten-story department store located on Monroe Ave in Grand Rapids. Established in 1870, the Grand Rapids location remained family owned until 1928, when it was sold to Hahn’s Department Stores. Like many department stores, they segmented their merchandise by floor – “bargain” material located in the basement, electric appliances on the sixth floor, shoes and corsets on the 4th floor, boys’ and men’s clothing on the second floor, and so-on.
As with many retailers, the company marketing strategy relied heavily on conducting sales, with various promotions designed to encourage repeat visitors. Sales were advertised heavily in the local newspaper – in this case, the Grand Rapids Press, and executed in quick succession. There were always multiple sales running at Herpolsheimer’s. Company advertising included regular, large-format ads for items in their bargain “basement,” as well as special weekly one-day sales every Friday, and in 1921, many of their spring ads also prominently mentioned their ongoing 51st anniversary sale. Additionally, each individual department had its own sales, with ads directing customers to the main floor for Hoover vacuum demonstrations, the fourth floor for lingerie sales, the seventh floor for draperies – and the second floor for boys’ clothing.
On Friday, April 15, Herpolsheimer’s began advertising an outstanding new promotion for their boys’ department – a complete set of 80 “photos on cards of the National Game’s Brightest Base Ball Stars,” noting that the previous Wednesday marked the start of the season. The ad pictured cards of local hero Ty Cobb, along with Tris Speaker, Rogers Hornsby, George Sisler, Walter Johnson, Wally Schang – and Babe Ruth, and offered the cards “in order to make the boys better acquainted with the heroes of the sporting page,” stating “we have arranged with a prominent advertising concern to make to make up for us this set of photographs of baseball players in action.”
This advertising campaign continued through April and May, and into June, noted in each of the retailer’s ads for the boys’ department.
The company’s June 1 ad featured “boys’ baseball suits,” a “real up-to-the-minute big league suit,” again directing customers to the Boys’ Fashion Shop on the second floor
These ads are a remarkable discovery, not only because they picture the exact cards we now know to be the 1921 Herpolsheimer’s cards, but for several other reasons:
• The ads explain how the cards were distributed: a complete set of 80 cards upon request, with the purchase of any new suit in the second floor boys’ department. This information confirms that these cards were actually distributed through the retailer, and that the original find was very likely not a “prototype,” as many collectors initially believed.
• The fact that they were offered in complete sets explains why the two finds included large numbers of cards (69/70 in the first find, 39 in the second), and why there were no duplicates in either find. Each recipient received a complete set. The cards were not offered as singles.
• The cards were only advertised between mid-April and mid-June. By July, Herpolsheimer’s was advertising “Palm Beach and Panama Suits” (whatever they were) for their boys’ department, and by August their ads promoted school suits. Mentions of baseball cards seem to have disappeared from their advertising after June 14. The short advertising window, coupled with the extreme regional footprint of the retailer (just one store serving Grand Rapids and the surrounding area) go a long way to explaining the extraordinary rarity of the cards.
• Our new knowledge of the issue suggests that there are likely more finds out there, tucked away in estates and inheritance collections, in the Grand Rapids area. However, we also know now that the 1921 Herpolsheimer’s cards were not a novelty or a prototype: they were actual baseball cards that were extensively marketed throughout the spring and early summer of 1921, as an incentive to buy boys’ suits, and that today, they are very rare, with no more than two surviving examples currently known of any card.
This is an extraordinary discovery. Thanks to Steve Dawson’s excellent research, we have learned more about the 1921 Herpolsheimer’s issue in the last 24 hours than we knew in the previous 102 years!