Gum card manufacturers of the 1930s popularized the practice of producing premiums, larger-format cards redeemable with the exchange of a given number of baseball cards, wrappers or coupons at the point of sale.  Carrying on this tradition in 1948-49 was the Leaf Gum Company of Chicago, which offered a larger format pinup-sized premium to young chewers of their All-Star Baseball Gum in exchange for ten wrappers.  The known subjects currently counted at eight included some of the greats of the game's history, including Babe Ruth, Christy Mathewson, Ed Walsh, Grover Alexander, John McGraw, Lou Gehrig, Mickey Cochrane, and Walter Johnson.  The premiums themselves, printed on lightweight paper, were difficult to maintain in any reasonable condition and very few survived.  Today, the premiums are very, very scarce.  PSA has graded just 123 examples from the issue, none fewer than that of Ed Walsh, with just five examples graded.  Though with a card this rare the grade is virtually meaningless, this example presents very well, some surface abrasions evident, as is some soiling and stray marks on the reverse.  Still, an outstanding piece, a very scarce issue featuring a deadball era Hall of Famer.