1949 Leaf Baseball Cards
The 1949 Leaf baseball card series represents the first post-World War II baseball card set.
The set contains 98 cards total, each measuring 2-3/8"x2-7/8".
Card fronts depict hand-tinted photos of the player, with his name at the bottom. Card backs feature basic player data and a short paragraph, with an advertisement comprising the bottom half. The advertisements were for such items as felt pennants, Hall of Famer photos, or an album to hold the set.
This set is considered one of the toughest modern (postwar) sets to complete, with around half of the cards in the set much harder to find than the others.
In addition, collectors have traditionally been frustrated with collecting this set because it is skip-numbered - that is, the cards number up to #168, but since the set only has 98 cards, many numbers are unaccounted for and were never printed. This was done at the time to encourage kids to buy more packs in order to get the elusive numbers.
Although some cards carry a 1948 copyright date (and cards from this set have traditionally been referred to as a 1948 issue), it is now widely agreed that the set was released in 1949, thus the designation.
The set contains some card variations, with the less-common variations commanding a higher price on the collector market. These are not accounted for in the total set price.
Prominent players in this set include Stan Musial, Satchel Paige, Phil Rizzuto, Warren Spahn, Jackie Robinson, and Andy Pafko.