[Exhibitman]

There's quite a bit more to the story of these cards. According to Bob Lemke, the cards were made by Chicago-based Aarco Playing Cards and sold in 12-card boxed sets called Collectors & Traders Sports Star Subjects. From there, the cards were used for various products. The cards come in the following varieties:
—A boxed set of the 48 cards with squared corners and whitish stock.
—The initial issue inserted with the bread has a whitish stock and rounded corners. My experience w/the boxers has been that these sell for a multiple of the square version.
—A Pittsburgh dairy used the initial set of cards as a promotional handout and contest in 1949. Card backs are stamped with a purple legend “Page’s Pittsburgh Milk Co. The Sweetest Milk Ever Sold.” There is also a rules card that explains the contest: turn in a full set of 48 and get a bike, so I bet there is certainly 1 extreme short print, but all the cards are rare.
—Some cards have surfaced in a perforated edge format with images of western stars on their reverses and appear to be issued by a shoe store. Also quite difficult to find. I have one.
—Some cards have surfaced with square corners and on yellower stock. Its manufacture timing is unknown. Some researchers believe they are later-made reprints.
—There was a warehouse find of half the cards in the original issue of the set in the 1980s. All of the ‘find’ cards had square corners and are on the whitish stock of the earlier cards. The square cornered “find” cards are easy. Owing to origin concerns not all slabbers will take them. They all used to take them and policy has varied over the years. That likely accounts for the slabbed one. I used to have an SGC 92 Joe Louis w/square corners.
--There are also Exhibit sized cards on cardboard. Pretty tough to locate but nice larger versions. I picked up Musial and Slaughter at the Natty this year.