1933 Wheaties Seattle Indians - anybody?

[timn1]

Does anyone know anything about this set, or possess any of them? Just looking for any info...




From SCD:

1933 Wheaties Seattle Indians
Prior to printing their first major league baseball cards on
the backs of cereal boxes in 1935, Wheaties sponsored a minor
league set for the Seattle Indians in 1933. The 4-1/8" x 7" cards
have a sepia-toned posed portrait or action photo on front, along
with a facsimile autograph. The player’s name, position, team
and year are printed in the bottom border. The postcard back,
printed in black-and-white, has a drawing of a Wheaties box and
an ad for the cereal. The unnumbered cards are checklisted here
alphabetically; it is likely this list is incomplete.

NM EX VG
Common Player: 450.00 225.00 135.00
(1) George Burns 600.00 300.00 180.00
(2) Joe Coscarart 450.00 225.00 135.00
(3) Leo Lassen (Broadcaster) 450.00 225.00 135.00
(4) Bill Radonits 450.00 225.00 135.00
(5) “Junk” Walters 450.00 225.00 135.00

[dlfallen]

Hi Tim,

I'm not the expert here but I have talked to him (them) in the past about this issue. The 5 listed in the SDC are the only ones known, and I believe only 1 copy of each is known. Makes the $ amount listed in SCD pretty useless.

The best guess is that they were never issued to the public - otherwise, why would they be this rare? The back does feature a Seattle mail permit so they were apparently close to production at one point.

At the National (the last one in Los Angeles) I picked up a 1933 Minneapolis Millers card which is very similar to the Seattle Indians cards. I picked it up simply because of its similarity to the Seattle issue as I have little hope of every acquiring a Seattle one. It makes sense for Wheaties to have produced the Minneapolis cards as it also sponsored that team's radio broadcasts. However, Wheaties had no known association with Seattle, and given that Seattle was a very small market area it is a total mystery why these cards even exist.

[timn1]

Great background - I suspected it might be something like this, where the cards don't even exist as a realistically collectible issue. The Minneapolis Wheaties cards are fun to collect, which is why I was interested in the Seattle group. But as you say, they must never have been produced except as samples.

[Leon]

Great background - I suspected it might be something like this, where the cards don't even exist as a realistically collectible issue. The Minneapolis Wheaties cards are fun to collect, which is why I was interested in the Seattle group. But as you say, they must never have been produced except as samples.

Until a stack of them get found ...which keeps it fun.

[dlfallen]

Living in the Seattle area I keep my antenna up. Three of the five known examples surfaced in a Seatle antique store several years ago. It doesn't hurt to keep my eyes open ...