Goudey

The Goudey Gum Co. produced sets of baseball cards in the 1930s. Most of the unreleased cards, printing plates, and company archives were thrown away in the 1960s, although some were sold to collectors. Today, cards in good condition command a premium, especially those authenticated and graded by respected third-party graders. Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig are prominently featured in the Goudey cards of the 1930s, colorful cards with hand drawn portraits of the players. Other baseball hall of fame and interesting players depicted on Goudey gum cards from 1933 to 1941 include: Jimmie Foxx, Bill Dickey, Carl Hubbell, Lefty Grove, Dizzy Dean, Mickey Cochrane, Charlie Gehringer, Tony Lazzeri, Mel Ott, Joe Dimaggio, Hank Greenberg, "Ducky" Joe Medwick and Moe Berg.

1933 Goudey set

In 1933, Goudey produced a 240 card set, also called "Big League Chewing Gum". These cards were issued in baseball packs and were known to be the first baseball gum cards. The cards were sold in packs wrapped with bubble gum. The 1933 Goudey set is considered one of the "Big Three" classic baseball card sets, along with the T206 and 1952 Topps sets.

One of the rarest baseball cards from a mainstream set is card #106 from the 1933 Goudey set. It was not originally issued with the set. No collector could complete their set in 1933 from packs. In 1934, Gooudey issued card #106 for the 1933 set with retired player Napoleon Lajoie. Collectors that sent letters to the Goudey Gum Company complaining about the lack of a #106 card received it in the mail. Few were sent out, but those that did are generally in better condition than other cards of the set due to the lesser chance of handling. The 1933 Goudey #106 Napoleon Lajoie is known as one of the "Big Three" baseball cards along with two cards from the T206 set depicting Honus Wagner and Eddie Plank.

1934 Goudey set

In 1934, Goudey produced a 96 card set that was endorsed by two players, Lou Gehrig and Chuck Klein. The 1934 Goudey set is sometimes called the "Lou Gehrig" set. Interestingly, there are no Babe Ruth cards in the set. Hank Greenberg's rookie card is in this set.

1938 Goudey set

In 1938, Goudey produced a 48 card set, also known as the "Heads-Up" set. The cards were numbered from 241 to 288, thus looking like Goudey was trying to extend the 1933 Goudey set. The first 24 cards in the set depicts pictures of players heads attached to a cartoonish body in baseball action. The next 24 cards in the set depicts the same players and the same poses. The difference is the next 24 cards include small cartoonish characters playing baseball along with captions. Joe Dimaggio, Jimmie Foxx, Hank Greenberg and Bob Feller are the big stars in this set.

Canadian Goudey

Similar cards as the 1933 and 1934 Goudey sets were also released in Canada by World Wide Gum Co, sometimes known as Canadian Goudey sets. There were 94 and 96 cards in these sets, respectively. The 1933 World Wide Gum set was released with two different backs, one with both French and English, and the other with only English. There has not been definitive proof, but one theory is that the French-English backs were sold in Quebec and the English-only backs were sold in Ontario.

Baseball Card Sets

Year of issuance, popular name and designation from the American Card Catalog
1933 Goudey R319
1933 Sports Kings R338
1933 World Wide Gum V353
1934 Goudey R320
1934 Goudey Premiums R390-1
1934 World Wide Gum V354
1935 Goudey 4-in-1 R321
1935 Goudey Premiums R390-2
1936 Goudey Wide Pens R314
1936 Goudey R322
1936 World Wide Gum V355
1938 Goudey "Heads-Up" R323
1939 Goudey Premiums R303
1939 World Wide Gum V351
1941 Goudey R324

References

* " [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,915313,00.html] " "Time", August 22, 1977
* Fogel, M. " [http://www.psacard.com/articles/article3886.chtml] "PSACard.com", July 8, 2003.