1939 Play Ball question

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Posted By: <b>jay behrens</b><p>The back sof these cards come with names in all caps or upper and lower case letters. Is one more difficult than the other? Does anyone care?<br /><br />Jay<br><br>My place is full of valuable, worthless junk.

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Posted By: <b>Ted Zanidakis</b><p>My experience is that either lettering variation is equally<br />available.<br /><br />Does anyone care?....Only the real diehard variation collectors<br />and there aren't too many of them still active in the hobby.<br /><br />

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Posted By: <b>jay behrens</b><p>I looked over the backs really close and though maybe there was differences int he bios, but they are exactly the same on the cards I have. Only difference is that it's not just the name that done differently, but the font and layout are different for the 2 styles. why in the world would they go to the trouble of creating 2 completely different style backs? Did they have 2 different printers?<br /><br />Jay<br><br>My place is full of valuable, worthless junk.

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Posted By: <b>Ted Zanidakis</b><p>The 1939-1941 Play Ball BB cards, the Horrors of War (NS) cards<br />and the 1941-43 War Gum cards were printed by the same printer<br />in the Philadelphia area by the original Bowman Gum Co.<br /><br />That is my understanding after having visited with George Moll<br />back in 1981. Moll's Adv. Agency was the producer of the Play<br />Balls and the Bowman cards. They were under contract by Warren<br />Bowman from the late '30s to the Mid '50s.

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Posted By: <b>David Vargha</b><p>Ted -- I disagree. My experience shows that the "Upper and Lower Case" version is more difficult to find in the low numbers, although no premium is paid for it. All of the salesmen's cards with the sample overprint on the back are the "All Caps" variety. Additionally, all of the salesmen's sample cards are low numbers only. All of the high numbers are "Upper and Lower Case" only. It is my belief that the low numbers had a second run at the same time that the high numbers were printed and that it is these cards that are the "Upper and Lower Case" variety. Thus their scarcity in comparison to the other version.<br /><br />(typo corrected)<br /><br />DavidVargha@hotmail.com

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Posted By: <b>Ted Zanidakis</b><p>David<br /><br />Its been a long time since I put this set together. And, I was<br />not interested in the "font variations" when I collected this<br />set. But, if I strain my brain, I had no difficulty finding<br />eiher printing in the Low# series.<br /><br />I have a few of the Red Overprint Adv. Samples, and those are<br />definitely tough to find.<br /><br />My above response to Jay was simply to inform him that the firm<br />(George Moll Adv. Agency in Abington, PA) who produced these<br />cards used the same printer. I believe it was the Zabel Brothers<br />Printing firm of Phila., PA.<br /><br />Your last comments regarding a 2nd press run on the Lo#s is<br />very likely and that would account for the letter variation.<br />This is very similar to what Bowman did in 1949 with its Low#<br />series and that is why the first 72 cards are found in White<br />or Gray cardboard. This is also what Topps did in 1952 with<br />its Low# series (hence: #1-80 are Black Backs or Red Backs).