http://cgi.ebay.com/F277-1-Famous-Airplanes-15-Pitcairn-Autogiro-PA-19_W0QQitemZ130251150896QQihZ003QQcategoryZ156521QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Somebody pls clue me in on why the furious bidding on this one? 

The generic back itself, for #15, isn't rare -- but is specific issue for July 14, 1935 (14735 in lower righthand corner) a difficult one? 

(Disclaimer:  I don't accept that old saw about "147th day" of 1935 . . . think it's been wrong from the start, when it was first suggested. No company would decide to use such a weird numbering system.  My opinion remains that the lower righthand reference numbers, on back, can all be understood as the more common day/month/year or, rarely, month/day/year.)

I have no idea why this card has garnered such interest - and as a shameless promo, I have LOTS of these available, in better condition, for the limited price of $50 per (haha).

As for product date coding; I've a fairly good understanding of the CPG marketplace, and MANY of these companies use similar production codes. For example, Masterfoods (M&M/Mars) places the production week into their code (as well as line information), so that 814AG3 tells you that the item was produced on the 14th week of 2008. And for recall purposes, most lot numbers have some date specific information.

We can all sit down for hours and discuss,
in detail, the Heinz set(s), extras.
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Sorry, no idea why the current bid price is "flying high"
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Mark, we don't disagree. 

I concur that is a production date code in the lower righthand corner of the card's back, but feel we as a hobby have misinterpretted it so far.  "14735" doesn't mean 147th day of 1935 but, rather (my opinion) means the production date of 14-7-35 (14 July 1935).

(Somewhere, sometime, some wise man said that usually the simplest explanation tends to be the correct one!)

We agree that the production code represents a date field.

Here are the Heinz codes I've been collecting:

0969, 3238, 9836, 9935, 13137, 14636, 14735, 22738, 23235, 27434, 32236

I'd proffer that the 1st digit can't be the month (0969), nor could the digit 3rd from last (32236). It seems most logical that for the years 1934-1937, the code is DDDYY; and for the years 1938 & 1939, the code is DDDY.



BUT - it doesn't matter - PSA has already decreed that the issue dates for the Heinz cards are 1938 (Famous Aviators) and 1940 (Famous Airplanes)

But I've always been puzzled about 0969, I even looked at it upside down but didn't help.

edited to add: the only reasoning I can figure is 2 collectors are trying to complete the set with all possible back variations.

My #15 has a different back than the one being auctioned, but I'm content just having the 25 different numbers.

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The answer is quite simple! Here is a reenactment:

Thoughts before the end of the auction

Bidder 1 (the winner):

"That's the last card I need for the set. I'll just put in a ridiculous bid to make sure I win it."

Bidder 2 (the only other bidder):

"That's the last card I need for the set. I'll just put in a ridiculous bid to make sure I win it"


Thoughts after the end of the auction

Bidder 2:

"WHEW, I'm glad I didn't win that one!"

Bidder 1:

"HOLY S*&T!"

I'm thinking that, with just a little bit of leniency, the "Day/Month/Year" or "Month/Day/Year" patterns work for all the card back production code numbers. 

So, why might it sometimes switch?  Well, first of all, things were surely a lot more loosey-goosey back then, compared to today's rigid ISO 14000 etc. controls and standardization of manufacturing processes.

And regardless of the era, anybody who's ever worked in a company run by PEOPLE already partly understands, especially when talking about irregularities in a process which occurred over a 5-year period.  Long time to screw around.  (One guy likes to date-stamp the cards/albums in one way, the other, another way . . . and a third, his own way, e.g. 0969!  Who knows?)  But lack of consistency certainly wouldn't be enough reason, to me, to reject this more familiar way to write production dates.)

The "either/or" hypothesis works and can generate a date (sometimes two) for each production code:

3238 - 3 Feb 38 or Mar 2 38

9836 - 9 Aug 36 or Sep 8 36

9935 - 9 Sep 35

13137 - 13 Jan 37 or  Jan 31 37

14636 - 14 Jun 36

14735 - 14 Jul 35

22738 - 22 Jul 38 or Feb 27 38

23235 - 23 Feb 35

27434 - 27 Apr 34

32236 - Mar 22 36

0969 - 9 Jun (3)9 or Sep 6 (3)9

I admit, the fact that some of these generate two potential dates makes me uncomfortable with this hypothesis, but I just don't see the layout artist or printer countings days to determine the "232nd Day of 1935" . . .  Seems overly precise, for their purposes.

. . . As Papa Dan might say, "How long you wanna discuss and debate this?  How long you got?) 

Ralph, agree in general with your DD/MM/YR rather than any other, but have a problem with 32236. It seems all others (#'s) have the day first, the month then the year. The 32236 only works with MM/DD/YR theory. A few of the others work both ways but only this one works with the second formula, why would Heinz switch for this one and revert back on the others? It just doesn't make sense to jump back and forth.

Well the auction ended and went for nearly 100.00 as a new bidder sniped at the end only to come up short. So 3 different bidders bid at least 63.99. It appears the winner is not a card collector, but an aviation buff.

Bill, I like your observation that the 'European' style for dates [ Day Month Year ] works for all cases, but one.  This would be consistent with a scenario where that was Heinz's standard and that single variation was an accident -- employee mistakenly using the more familiar American style [ Month Day Year ].

Richard, now that the dust has settled, perhaps one of the bidders can step forward and explain to us what all the hubbub was about.  Was this rarer than the others?  (Have we done a census of the number variations yet?)