Underappreciated sets

[Al C.risafulli]

For example, the 1938 Goudey "Big Head" cards are numbered 241 to 288. It seems, for whatever reason, that they were possibly intended to be an extension of the 1933 Goudey set then, that included cards 1 to 240? But if that was the intention, why did they jump from a 1933 issue to a 1938 issue to do so, skipping over all the other Goudey issues for the years in between? That is a question that has aways stumped me as to the true reason why Goudey numbered their 1938 cards as they did.

Bob, this is one of the things that fascinates me about the set.

What's more, if you look at the BACKS of the cards, the low number series declare the cards as being one of a series of 288 cards. And the high number series declare each card being one of a series of 312!

This means that at first, Goudey planned a 48-card set, and then at some point decided to do 72 cards. Yet they only did 24, really, unless you subscribe to the belief that repeating the same 24 cards a second time (with cartoons added) was their plan all along, which I don't. There are WAY too many important players excluded from the set. For instance - why would they have not produced a card of Lou Gehrig or Chuck Klein, both of whom endorsed Goudey gum in 1934? There are lots of examples like that.

I could go on about this set and all its unanswered questions all day.

-Al