Why is there no 1939 or 1940 Goudey set?
 

I've often wondered about this. Goudey started the Golden Age of baseball cards with the 1933 set, but quickly went downhill in terms of set quality and size until 1941. After a huge rousing success with the 1933 set where they were pushed by collectors to provide the missing Lajoie card, they did the "Lou Gehrig says" set in 1934 with less than half the size set of the previous year, then went to the "4 in 1" in 1935 with only 36 cards in that set.

The 1935 set with 25 cards was low-quality with the game play backs. They stepped up a bit in 1938 with the "heads Up" set but had to double up on every card to make it a bigger set. Then they disappeared for two years until coming back with one of the ugliest and most disappointing sets ever in 1941

I understand the depression played a big role but they did continue with the premium sets, so there was money out there.

1937 was also a lost year for a card set. Was the "thumb movie" set their plan for the year instead of a card set?

I'd love to know what made Goudey do the things they did since they make no sense from a collectors point of view.

Goudey
 

I have never collected them and am almost exclusively a post war collector, but I think paper rationing occurred during the war and cardboard may have gotten scarce and expensive.Not sure if that would have been a factor in 1939 and 1940.

You might get more expertise on the pre war side

Al is correct. I am also largely a post war collector, but I really like the '41 Play Ball set. The '40 set consisted of 240 cards. Due in part to WW2 and the subsequent shortages, '41 was reduced to 72 cards...albeit they were in color.

World War 2 must have caused a paper shortage, maybe the depression caused a cash shortage.