
Front

Back
Fast Facts
Year(s) Issued: 1911-1914
Set Designation: D304
Number Cards: 25
Card Size: 1-3/4″ x 2-1/2″
Common Card Value (Good Condition): $400
Scarcity Rating: (1 to 10, 10 scarcest): 8
D304 General Baking Set
Keys For Collectors
D304 General Backing - Five Different Back Variations

D304 Brunners Bread Back

D304 Martens Bakery back

D304 Butter Krust back

D304 Weber Bakery back

D304 General Baking back
D304 Summary:
Issued from 1911 to 1914 in loaves of bread, the D304 set is viewed as one one of the more popular baking/bread sets. The D304 set is filled with hall of famers, including Ty Cobb, Honus Wagner, Cy Young and Christy Mathewson. While not impossible to locate, the cards are tough to find, with PSA only having graded on average roughly 24 cards of each player.
The Cobb from the set, visually is the standout, while the other player drawings have a good resemblance to the player in question, but not quite like the Cobb. The Cobb is probably one of my favorite cards of all time, and is one of the hobby's most valuable baseball cards of all time. The card is worth over $20,000 (dependent on the back) in even Poor to Good condition: notably PSA has graded less than 30 of the D304 Cobb card.

Issued with five different bread back advertisements--there are some back variations which are much tougher to track down; notably Martens, Weber and General Baking. Brunners and Butter Krust tend to be far and away the easier ones to find.
While there are 25 players in the set, there are five variations which include the team name blacked out of players that were traded. These players include Frank Chance, Hal Chase, Otis Crandall, John Evers and Charles Herzog. Here's a Frank Chance with his team name blacked out:

D304 Frank Chance with team name blacked out
I will admit, that a few of the player illustrations look a bit cartoonish. The Nap Lajoie card is one. Did the same artist that drew the Cobb likeness also illustrate this picture?

I like the colors in the Johnny Evers card from the set. One other note, unlike many of the tobacco and caramel issues from the era, these images were not re-used across any other baseball set.

I also wish the Wagner from the set looked a bit more like Honus Wagner, but so be it, still a cool card:

D304 Current Card Values
Poor (PSA 1) | Good (PSA 2) | |
J. Frank Baker | $600 | $800 |
Jack Barry | $400 | $500 |
George Bell | $400 | $500 |
Charles Bender | $600 | $800 |
Frank Chance | $450 | $800 |
Frank Chance (team Blacked Out) | $500 | $900 |
Hal Chase | $450 | $800 |
Hal Chase (team Blacked Out) | $500 | 4900 |
Ty Cobb | $10,000 | $20,000 |
Eddie Collins | $700 | $900 |
Otis Crandall | $350 | $400 |
Otis Crandall (team Blacked Out) | $400 | $500 |
Sam Crawford | $500 | $800 |
John Evers | $500 | $900 |
John Evers (team Blacked Out) | $650 | $1,000 |
Authur Fletcher | $350 | $400 |
Charles Herzog | $350 | $400 |
Charles Herzog (team Blacked Out) | $400 | $500 |
M. Kelly | $350 | $400 |
Napoleon Lajoie | $1,000 | $1,500 |
Rube Marquard | $700 | $1,000 |
Christy Mathewson | $1,200 | $2,000 |
Fred Merkle | $500 | $700 |
Chief Meyers | $500 | $700 |
Marty O'Toole | $350 | $400 |
Nap. Rucker | $350 | $400 |
Arthur Shafer | $350 | $400 |
Fred Tenny (Tenney) | $500 | $600 |
Honus Wagner | $1,900 | $4,000 |
Cy Young | $1,000 | $2,000 |
How To Identify A D304 Counterfeit
eBay is littered with D304 counterfeits. And like many other popular counterfeit cards, there are listings on eBay which are aptly described as reprints...and those that are being sold by outright scammers.
As an example, here's a listing for a D304 Cobb reprint, that is advertised as such.

A reprinted D304 Cobb

D304 Reprint Back
Here's a real Weber bakery back. It's clear that the paper is lighter in comparison to the fake one.

An authentic Weber Bakery D304 back

An artificially aged D304 Mathewson fake

A fake D304 back
Now here's a real Mathewson with a real back. A few obvious things on this one to help you out.
Take a look at the red sleeve on Mathewson--see how on the real one below there's some missing color near the uniform? On the fake above it's entirely red. Also on the back of the fake above we can see the little wrinkles that are consistent with soaking- -aka artificial aging.
You can read more about that here: https://allvintagecards.com/detecting-counterfeit-vintage-cards/

In addition, if we look at the back of the authentic D304 card below, we can see consistent print, although on the fake above the print is really bold and dark--just a completely different darkness to the font.

A real D304 Brunners back
D304 Cards for Sale on eBay
1911 D304 Brunners Bread Ty Cobb HOF GOAT GRAIL CARD Detroit Tigers
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Tire Deestone D304 Rim Guard 27X8.50-15 Load 8 Ply Industrial
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1911-1914 Brunners Bread D304 # 24 Honus Wagner, BVG Graded 3.5 (VG+) FREE SHIP
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1911 D304 Fleishmann Bakery Butter Krust Bread - Fred Merkle - SGC 3 VG - N.Y.
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1911 D304 Brunner's Bread - Sam Crawford HOF - SGC 40 VG - Detroit Tigers
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1911-14 Brunners Bread D304 Charles Chief Bender SGC AUTH Athletics HOF
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1911 D304 Brunners Bread- Marty Otoole - SGC 5 EX - Pittsburgh
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1913-38 BUFFALO NICKEL COMPLETE NICKEL SET WITH 14-D/13-D &13-S II CERT'D! #304
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CHRISTY MATHEWSON 1911 D304 GENERAL BAKING BRUNNERS BUTTER KRUST SGC 70 5.5!
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1911 D304 Brunner's Bread - Charles Herzog - PSA 3 VG - N.Y. Giants
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JOHN EVERS 1911 D304 GENERAL BAKING CO. BRUNNERS BUTTER KRUST PSA 5 EX!!
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FRANK CHANCE 1911 D304 GENERAL BAKING BRUNNERS BUTTER KRUST PSA 6 POP 1 HIGHEST!
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SAM CRAWFORD 1911 D304 GENERAL BAKING BRUNNERS BUTTER KRUST PSA 5.5 Highest!!
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Hex Bolts Full Thread Stainless Steel 3/8-16 x 2-1/2" Qty 1,000
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2023 BMW 530E GENUINE FULL LED HEADLIGHT ADAPTIVE LEFT DRIVER SIDE OEM 5A388D304
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