Magic name time. And how can we not include this man, John (or Honus) Wagner, whose American Tobacco Company card is consistently one of the highest priced at auction. As to why, well there is the tale that he saw the card and objected, for whatever reason, and there are several - he did not smoke, he did not want to encourage juveniles to smoke, he wanted to be more adequately recompensed by way of money, he did not like the picture. The list goes on. Anyway the card was pulled, though some were already distributed. And you can read the saga at Wikipedia/Wagner
Now his card is him, too, but grown a little older, and he is now shown as a coach. In fact he was coach of his former team, the Pittsburgh Pirates, from 1933 until 1951. On this card he is also going by his actual name of Jack, which is why it is sometimes passed by unknowingly.
This card is a trade card, issued with Leaf Gum, and it starts with two of the greats of all time, Joe DiMaggio (card 1), and Babe Ruth (card 3). For some reason, not all the numbers appear, and there is no card number two. This means that thought it is a set of ninety-eight cards. it is actually numbered from 1 to 168. In addition forty nine cards were printed in lesser quantities.
There is much debate as to when it was issued. 1948 is usually cited, and some of the cards do carry that date as part of the copyright inscription, but other cards do not, which has led to some collectors believing the 1948 ones were printed first, but held back whilst the undated ones were printed. Then all the cards were released in 1949.
Despit these curiosities it is a much sought after set. Part of the reason for that may be nostalgia, it being the first set of colour cards to be issued after World War Two. And oh, the colours! They are bright and almost glaring. Is it any wonder that children wanted to collect them all.