[todeen]

Originally Posted by jingram058

I used to see quite a few of those semi-colorized Reds team issue cards, w711-1, at card shows down here in Florida 20 to 25 years ago. I never bought or traded for any until the past few years. Even now, for pre-war, they are not super expensive, in fact very reasonable. I am going to start collecting them, I think. They are pretty good looking cards. These were originally sold at Crosley Field, in packages/boxes, is that right?

The 1940 set was in a box, and you can occasionally find them for sale. I believe an entire set with box just sold on Net54 earlier this month. The 1938/39 set is currently unknown for packaging. No box or envelope is currently known to exist. BumpusJones has a scan saying they were a Dairy related item. However, multiple people, including the Reds Hall of Fame doubt that claim because there is NO advertising evidence to support the local dairy produced them. However, it is also not known how they were distributed. It could be the cards were not team issued - thus not sold as a "set." Instead they could have been locally made and sold outside the stadium. If anyone knows of an envelope or box, it is highly sought after. It is also unknown why some players are EXTREMELY rare. I believe one card in the set only has five known copies.