1939 Play Ball in Context?
Hi everyone! Long time lurker, first time poster. I was lucky enough to pick up a copy of the ‘39 Play Ball Ted Williams and am looking to put together a video doing a deep dive on the card, the set, and Gum, Inc. However, I have a blind spot right now to two things: the business rationale and the collector acceptance (or lack there of).
1939 Play Ball marked the first baseball set that JW Bowman had released and was obviously the predecessor to ‘40-‘41 Play Ball and Bowman later on.
The business rationale: Do we know why JW Bowman decided to make the jump into baseball cards? Did the success of the “Horrors of War” set simply give Bowman the confidence he needed to branch out into other types of trading cards?
The collector acceptance: Do we know how 1939 Play Ball was received when it was released? Kids love the larger size compared to tobacco and other gum issue cards? How did it stack up against the other gum issue sets like Goudey and DeLong?
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