We started our look at auctions with this card, and the clue here was the player, George Best, whose cards are always popular in the auction world.
The most valuable card of him is a trade card, and it is number 29 of Barratt & Co.`s "Famous Footballers - Series A.12"
This was issued in 1964, and he was just nineteen. He looks it too, he is so young. Would he have been happier to stay young and unaffected, and not to hunt the limelight? Would he have lived for longer than just fifty-nine? Or did he like the way he lived and was willing to pay the price?
As to why that Barratt card is so sought after, well it was his first ever appearance on a card. Or, to use a modern term, imported from America, his "Rookie Card". Though in America this term has a different meaning, it is not just the first time any sports star or actor appears on a card, it is specific to baseball, and it is actually the first card which features a player after they have started playing for a Major League club.
At this time he was described as “George Best, the young Manchester United winger, Northern Ireland’s most dangerous raider”. In 1966 he was just twenty-two years old. He had signed for Manchester United at the age of fifteen and stayed there until 1974. In 1968 he became European Footballer of the Year; the same year Manchester United became the first English club to win the European Cup.
Now Reddish Maid is an odd name but it comes from the town of Reddish, near Stockport.
They issued three sets of cards between 1955 and 1965, all having “International” in the title – these were our set “Famous International Footballers”, plus “Famous International Athletes” (issued in 1965), and “Famous International Aircraft” (issued in 1963), the last of which was also issued by Clevedon Confectionery. The Reddish Maid version of that set is a slightly different size, being larger at 59 x 33 m/m (the Clevedon version is 57 x 33 m/m.
Our set is catalogued in our original British Trade Index part II as :
INTERNATIONAL FOOTBALLERS OF TODAY. Sm. 63 x 34. Nd. (25) … REG-3
This is slightly altered in the updated British Trade Index, to read :
INTERNATIONAL FOOTBALLERS OF TODAY. 1966. Caricatures. 63 x 34. Nd. (25) … RED-390
You can see all the cards by sliding Down Under to NigelsWebSpace/Reddish https://vintagefootball.cards/196566_reddish_maid/196566_reddish_maid_index.html