Help needed: is this Willie Mays postcard real or reprint???

[jhs5120]

Hi everyone,

I just won a 1953 Willie Mays Howard Service card 7up ad!!!!!

I just purchased this last night. When I saw this for sale I could not believe my eyes I watched the card throughout the entire sale and finally put in the winning bid and won it for a fraction of what it is worth, possibly. I have only seen one of these, not in person, and I can't find anything on the issue other then this card.

The question: is it real?

If it isn't real, no biggie, but I have no reason to believe it is a reprint.

The seller checks out:
http://toolhaus.org/cgi-bin/negs?Use...ed+by&ref=home
he has 1500+ feedback, mostly cards and the only complaints have been poor packaging. Nothing to do with reprints/altered cards.

After a quick google search I found nothing on any reprint sets that have included this card. I know TCMA had some oddball postcard reprints out but I think they were primarily pre-war.


Here is a photo front/back of the card in question:




Here is the link to the auction:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...#ht_500wt_1154

Any opinions would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Jason