Posted By:
Chris CountsI agree with anyone who thinks the 1938 Goudey Heads-Ups are ugly. Other sets that make my hall of shame for bad card design are as follows ...
1) E-91s — While I like many of the Caramel card designs, the E-91s, in my opinion, have truly awful artwork;
2) R312s — I generally like color-tinted photos, but why does just about every player in this Goudey set look like he's wearing lipstick? For me, the lipstick factor ruins many Caramel cards as well;
3) 1948 Leaf — I realize they're post-war, but since they've already been mentioned, I'll toss in my two cents ... I actually think the Paige is one of the nicer cards. They generally have bad colors, bad artwork and they're printed on bad paper.
4) Any Goudey card that's not from 1933 or 1934 — For me, it's all downhill after the wonderful "Big League Gum" set. I don't mind the '34s, but to me, the '35s and '36s look like they were created as almost an afterthought. The same goes for the Wide Pen premiums, the '39s (I can't stand uniforms and caps with the logos whited out) and '41s (not a bad design, but poorly executed on bad paper with some of the worst miscuts I've ever seen. In contrast, I like just about everything Goudey's chief competitor, National Chicle, ever created.
There are others cards that make me cringe, like strip cards for instance, but I'm going to stop now or I'll have nightmares. I'm going to go look at my '53 Bowmans now just to clear my head ...