1939 PB variation question
 

Please educate this novice collector. Can someone explain to me why the '39 PlayBall set has 2 different name font variations on the back? With my tiny fraction of experience with this set, it appears the ALL CAPS version is more common than the First Letter only capitalized on first and last names version. Any and all information is appreciated. Why there are two variations, scarcity, what was first print run (if that's a thing), increased demand causing second print (?), different print locations? I'm just making things up. Thanks in advance and look forward to hearing from the experts.

It’s been a few years since I finished this set, but here’s what I know:

Cards #1 -#115 were issued first. These had the names on the back in all capital letters. All of these cards were also issued with the Sample stamp version, presumably as a promotion.

Cards #116 - #162 were issued sometime later ( minus card #126 which was never issued). All of these cards had the names on the back in mixed case.

All but 42 of the original 115 cards were also reissued then with the names on the back in mixed case. 12 of these cards also had text errors corrected. The theory is that the second group had no big names (except Earl Averill) so they reissued some of the earlier group. I don’t know if that’s the real reason or not.

- Dave

Thank you Dave. Any idea of print run comparison with the variations your set is made up of?


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I just did a quick survey of 1939 Play Ball cards that are currently available on Ebay to see if there are any clues about availability and maybe scarcity. I picked 10 or 12 random cards in each of the 3 groups and looked at how many were available.
Here’s what I found:
Cards 1 - 115 with Upper Case only 208 cards/10 = 20.8
Cards 1 - 115 with Upper or Mixed case. 262 cards/10 = 26.2
Cards 115 - 162 with Mixed Case only. 66 cards/12 = 5.5

So it seems that the first group of 115 cards that were printed with only Upper Case names were printed in a quantity that is about 4x more than the second group that was printed with names in Mixed Case (the high number cards and the 73 cards from the lower numbers that were printed again).
So while none of the cards are “rare”, the ones with mixed case backs are definitely scarcer (about an 80/20 distribution or maybe 75/25).

Of course all the usual disclaimers about a non-scientific, one day snapshot apply.
- Dave

Again, thank you. I guess I could have done that, but I’m obviously too stupid to think about it. I really appreciate it.


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