Leaf Baseball Cards Inaugural Set…
mintonlypls
Posts: 2,148 ✭✭✭✭✭
I have been researching the Leaf baseball set in the 1940s looking to acquire rookie cards of Jackie Robinson and Satchel Paige. Reading the back of the Robinson Leaf card …I suspect that the Leaf cards were not from 1948, but from 1949. It references last season on the Leaf Robinson card as Robinson batting .296 and having 85 RBIs which is the 1948 season. Also…copyright on the Leaf cards states 1949. So…I googled when the Leaf baseball card set was ISSUED in the 1940s. Google states the Leaf Baseball Set was released to Boston, MA on March 14, 1949.
So…the first true rookie cards of both Satchel Paige and Jackie Robinson are both the “1948” Leaf Paige and “1948” Leaf Robinson as well as the 1949 Bowman Paige and 1949 Bowman Robinson since both issues (Leaf and Bowman) were issued in the Spring of 1949.
Any thoughts?
Comments
I tend to agree that the 48/49 leaf and the 49 bowman are equivalent as rookie issues.
There’s a possibility that some cards were produced and distributed though as 48 leaf. As you say many cards have the 49 copyright and many, including those with the 48 copyright, have 48 season total stats mentioned on the card backs. There’s a guy on net54 who knows too much about this issue and his assertion is that they were all released in 1949.
Leaf is clearly a '49 set. No vintage collector I know considers it a 1948 set. FYI the Paige is a short print and much rarer than the Jackie.
Thx for any insights…as I had been concentrating on Post-War after 1952. I’m just looking to bring myself up to speed as I want to acquire the Paige and Robinson RCs in lower grades than what I have been buying.
I like the Paige RC from Bowman…and either Robinson RCs.
I like the 49 bowman Paige and the 49 leaf Robinson best. I look forward to seeing your acquisitions. I’ve been after the 49 bowman Paige with auto for some time.