Amazing example of one of the most interesting rarities of its era. The 1928 Harrington's Ice Cream issue scarce today in its own right was distributed to youngsters with the same objective as many manufacturers distributing baseball cards with their product: to sell more product. The reverse of the cards indicate that an "ice cream novelty" would be given with the exchange of each Babe Ruth card and that the exchange of a complete set entitled the bearer to a full gallon of Harrington's ice cream. As has been the case with many issues of its type it is speculated that the card of Earl Smith was produced in extremely short supply in an effort to severely limit the number of free gallons given away while theoretically increasing the number of ice creams sold to kids looking to complete their sets. Clearly the card of Earl Smith is different in appearance from the rest of the cards in the set - the other cards are all black and white while the Smith card is printed in green tint. Hobbyists today speculate that rather than cancelling the sets with a hole punch or other mark (as was the case with other issues like the 1933 George C. Miller cards) retailers simply replaced the black and white Smith card with a green one when "winners" redeemed their complete sets. That coupled with limited production of the card would result in the immense rarity of the card today. Today fewer than ten examples of this card are known to exist. SGC has graded six and PSA none with just two examples graded higher than this one. Few cards from its era are more rare than this. Indeed we can find only a handful of recorded sales of this card online all well into the thousands with an SGC EX+ example selling for nearly $6 000 in the summer of 2011. This is an extraordinary rarity one of just six graded examples in existence and the most attractive and highest-grade example available at auction today.