1948 Leaf Musial - advice/thoughts on the dizzying number of color options??
 

I would love some expert opinions to help me sort through what is a confusing number of color options ions for the 1948 Leaf Stan Musial.

Background colors range across many blue palettes, I have seen the black block of his name misaligned with his image block/background and his hat changes colors like a mood ring too!

And I’m guessing others here can point out more variations (and reasons for it?)

My big question to this group would be - which color option/variation do experienced Musial collectors prefer? Yes, I will pick one that appeals to me in the end but I value others opinions and experiences on this before making my purchase decision. Net54 rarely disappoints!

Which color variation of the ‘48 Leaf Musial do YOU fancy (and why??)

Thanks all!

Jeff

I do not have a Musial, but I do have a Ted Williams from the set, and it is one of my favorite cards. The registration on the cards is a nightmare, as you know, so I prioritized finding one with perfect registration and great color, and well - not perfect, but not terrible centering. I just can't stand to look at a poorly registered card. It's a baseball card, not a Picasso.

For all 1948 Leaf cards, regardless of the sport, the only way quality and control could get in the same sentence was “Quality; we can’t control that”.

Always preferred the light blue myself just for aesthetics, no other reason.

If there is a rock to be turned over on this set, Tedzan will have info. This is one of his favorites. Personally I do not know if the Blue tint on the Musial has a notable value change.

I imagine a master set of this set with all variations would be exhaustive, not sure if it has been complied yet. Some like the missing backgrounds and the Newhouser blue and yellow are hen's teeth.

This one

https://photos.imageevent.com/exhibi...f%20Musial.jpg

Tho if I could have any one of them it would be the error version without any background color. Didn't win that when it popped up.

Stan...In a CSG 1.5 holder now.

I have been working on this project for a while. I’m writing a manuscript about the history of the 1949 Leaf sets. The print color variations are rampant through the set, in talking with my Great Uncle who worked as a printer during the late 40’s, his opinion was that the inks that were purchased were “whatever was available.” So the CMYK 4 color process used whatever they could get from their ink distributors, without a color standard applied to it, hence the difference in colors.

The Red hat variation represents a physical plate change, making it a true variation. It is in-line with the Peterson variation that is widely recognized. I am currently trying to get PSA and others to recognize this variation that affects most of the 49 cards in the 1st issue set.

I took the images of the 2 version of this card into photoshop and isolated the cyan and black channels, you can clearly see how the black printing plate had been changed to allow for the red to show through. Another indicator of the later printings is the pinkish magenta ink, which is only present on the cards whose plates had been altered to improve the color of the hats. I’ll have more info coming soon on this topic.

I've always Liked the all red cap dark blue background combo. It always seemed to be overlooked by everyone. Glad to see a thread made about this.

In my limited experience - The light blue has the most consistent registration ,
Here is mine with the dark blue - the “ all red hat variation “ is almost always “joggled” looking ,
If you can find a red hat that’s focused- that’d be neat .

This one is the best I can find. https://www.ebay.com/itm/12493589640...mis&media=COPY

Markedly better than most - Weirdly the same seller has a regular BVG5 with some decent centering
https://www.ebay.com/itm/35408236852...0AAOSwuWViks5l

That's pretty much accurate. I think the ones using magenta rather than red (the red hat version for Musial) are earlier rather than later. But it's a coin toss considering how many changes they made.

I've been working on a similar project, a virtual master set using saved images. Most cards have a clear variation besides color, for Musial, not only red hat/black hat but with the line of blue at the end of the bat or not.
Many differences are partly tied to the color differences

For a few I haven't found the difference yet, and for a few I've found not only three basic types, but a very few transitional types where for example the black layer that goes along with a particular yellow layer goes with a different yellow layer than usual.

The normal red with whatever variety are fairly common.
The Magenta ones are a bit tougher.
The transitional types are not at all common.

I think those represent a transition from one print run/set of plates to another.

I mostly pick up commons, but haven't noted much price difference based on color between any versions that aren't recognized variations.

pretty card i own this havent seen it in yrs ,,but i own a ton of football and boxing ,,colrs all over the place.great sets enjoy octavio

+1 Great registration on that one
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