Finally, my friend Anthony Nex pointed one out to me - it was being offered by a well-respected dealer of vintage cards for $350. It was beaten up pretty badly, but the dealer told me that in all his years in the hobby, this was only the second one he'd ever seen. Since Rob Lifson told me that it had been ages since he'd seen one - and he's seen everything - I jumped on it.
A few months later, I saw another one listed on eBay with a BIN of $500. I thought about it for a few minutes, and decided to pick it up. It looked much nicer than the one I already owned (which had a few tape repairs and some chewed-up edges, plus lots of wrinkles). I figured I could eventually sell the first one, because I didn't need two.
About a month after I bought my second one, a third one was listed on eBay. This one was bid up over $800, but didn't meet the seller's reserve. However, while it was listed, it sparked an email discussion between me and a friend (and fellow 38 Goudey collector) over whether or not I was interested in bidding in this auction.
In looking at the wrapper in the eBay auction, I felt that it had been trimmed on both the top and bottom. From what I can tell, the top and bottom should have serrated edges, and the one in the eBay auction had straight ones. Based on that, I decided not to bid on the eBay auction for the third wrapper.
But in inspecting my two wrappers - really for the first time - I realized something that was plan as day. I had two different wrappers.
I'm not sure why I had not noticed it before, and I definitely felt like a dope. But sure enough, there were two distinctly different designs, right in front of me - confirming what Rob Lifson had told me back in June.
The wrapper on the top was purchased first, from the long-time dealer. You can see it's pretty beat-up, but it is entirely intact. It contains the "Heads Up" logo/caricature in the center, which would have been the front of the pack. Folded over to the back on four sides, the design had cartoon artwork depicting baseball scenes on all four sides.
The wrapper on the bottom was purchased on eBay a few months later. Clearly, this is a different wrapper design. First, the graphic depicting the "Heads Up" logo and caricature is much larger - while the artwork and typography is identical, the blue/yellow/red background colors extend much further to the left and right of the art itself. Second, there is no cartoon artwork to the left or right of the "Heads Up" logo as there is on the first pack. Third, you'll notice that although the artwork at the top and bottom of the wrapper is virtually identical, there is a subtle difference, in the yellow color depicting the playing field - on the wrapper on the bottom, you'll see the yellow is slightly truncated, both on the left and the right.
Although it appears that the wrapper on the bottom has been trimmed on the left and right, I cannot be certain of this. it is still large enough to wrap the entire wrapper over a single 38 Goudey baseball card and stick of gum (I am assuming this issue was released in single-card penny packs, although the wrappers bear no markings to confirm this).
Neither wrapper has any markings indicating which one was for the first series and which was for the second. However, I'll use a little deductive reasoning and draw the conclusion that the wrapper to the right was for the second series. Here's why:
1) Cards from the first series were notated on the back as "One of a series of 288 baseball cards." The first series consisted of 24 cards, all printed on a single sheet, numbered 241-264. Clearly, the initial plan was to produce a second sheet of cards, probably containing 24 players not depicted in the first series.
2) Cards from the second series were identical to the first series. The cards were laid out identically on the sheet, with one minor print variation corrected, and then the "cartoon" artwork was overlaid onto the artwork - ostensibly creating 24 "new" cards of the original 24 players. However, the second series cards were notated as "One of a series of 312 baseball cards."
Obviously there were another 24 players planned somewhere along the line, and the fact that several key players were missing from this set would support this theory. However, something caused the Goudey Gum Company to change their plans - based on the economic realities of the time, coupled with rationing that hurt gum companies in advance of the impending war, I will draw the conclusion that the reason for the change in plans was financial in nature.
Given that the company elected not to design 24 brand-new cards for the second series, I'll also assume that they made changes to reduce costs on their wrappers as well. Printing with less ink on a thinner wrapper could have been a cost-cutting measure. Furthermore, you'll note that the design on the left has more artwork than the design on the right. If the Goudey Gum Company designers were going to add artwork to the second series wrapper, would it not have made sense to add typography to identify the pack as a "second series" pack? Yet they did not.
Therefore I can only assume that the wrapper on the bottom is the second series wrapper.
Some missing items that might support my conclusion further:
1) Any information about the possible "third series" of 24 players. I'll assume that these 24 were initially supposed to be numbered 265-288, but those plans were shelved in favor of re-using the initial 24 players for the second series. However, where are Johnny Mize, Arky Vaughan, Mel Ott, Carl Hubbell, Bill Dickey, Lou Gehrig, Joe Cronin, Earl Averill, Red Ruffing and Lefty Gomez, among others?
2) Any information describing what the dimensions of the 38 Goudey wrappers should have been.
3) Any information about why cartoons were added to the first series of cards, and then reissued as a "second series", and whether the company decided to mask this by not marking the packs as first series or second series.