1948 Leaf Football - Cream backs vs Grey backs? How to tell?

DJJazzBass

Is there a definitive way to tell a cream back from a grey back on the 1948 Leaf Football set? All website details state the grey are more rare, especially in the first series. Is there a specific way to tell? It appears the cream back has shaper printing, I assume because they are more glossy, just like the 1952 Topps baseball cream vs grey backs. The grey back printing seems to "soak" into the stock more and be less sharp. I have two of the same cards below. One looks cream, like most of my other cards, and the other looks grey, like a few of the 2nd series cards I have and the 1948 Leaf Baseball cards. Thank you for any help.

Same card grouped with a few others:

remedylane

I collect 48 leaf boxing and I consider myself a bit of an expert. Lol. As far as the boxing series goes, from what I understand the cream/white backs were printed in 1948. The sets were so popular they reprinted them in 1949 using gray stock. Don't know if that holds true for football. They are easy to tell to me. These are from my collection and you can see the difference on the front of the cards as well as the back. The cream ones are much whiter and sharper. From my experience neither is more rare than the other.

DJJazzBass

Thank you very much for posting the boxing cards for comparison. The front helps as well.
I scanned 2 other cards that may be Cream and Grey backs.
The rare Kenny Washington with the white letters could be a grey back, and the regular Kenny Washington is definitely a cream back. They look similar to the 2 boxing cards you showed. Thank you again.

remedylane

I'd say for sure the white letter is a gray.