1931 World Tour Yuasa and Co. Card (actually G.T. Sun Co.)
 

I am curious if anyone has seen this "card" before. It measures 5.5" x 3.25", making the height 0.25" shorter than a standard RPPC, but it is on thicker paper and feels RPPCish. There is a number on the front as well, so maybe it is part of a set of some sort?

Thanks in advance.

(I edited the title once Craig told me what this is.)

It is a Japanese issue to commemorate the MLB tour of Japan produced by Yuasa.

There are beautiful cards of the individual players as well including Gehrig, Grove, Cochrane etc.
Did you come across this one? They are very scarce

Thanks for the info Craig. Looking online, I only see this site:

http://www.vintageball.com/1931Tour.html

A very cool site if that happens to be a board member's. But, not a ton of info on the Yuasa issue - are there any better discussions of it?

Rob Fitts wrote a fantastic article about this issue in the April 6th 2010 SCD.
You should be able to find it online.
Since that article I have been looking for any examples of these cards. It took many years but recently I was ecstatic to pick this one up

Wow Craig, I see why you were excited, that Gehrig is fantastic!

I found the article you mentioned:

http://www.sportscollectorsdigest.co...d-with-hofers/

I see Rob is a board member and last posted in 2016. I am going to try a pm and email and see if he can add some photos of the set.

Here are some others from the set including the Team photo like yours.
Interestingly they aren't numbered like yours. The #15 on yours makes sense since I believe there are 19 different subjects known at this time

THESE ARE NOT MINE!

Beautiful set, that Lou is spectacular.

Agreed
 

..and I would consider donating any body which I ( or TheWidwGarcia) have two of in order to own the Grove...

,,I'm prolly not alone here....

..

1931 Tour
 

I have the Cochrane card

Where did you find the team card Bryan? That is just fantastic.

I love it when the pictures are so sharp they are almost 3D-like. Great cards. That said, are these cards a series of photos that were distributed akin to a photo pack? Or....?
And thanks for sharing!!

I thought I should add some additional info to this thread to make it more of a reference.

I spoke with Robert Klevens of Prestige Collectibles who also spoke with Gary Engle (thanks for your help Robert!). Gary's checklist for this set is below. Robert mentioned that he doesn't know of more than 1 or 2 of each card. My copy of the team card is also the first they have seen with a number on the front.

PSA doesn't list signature/no signature/variations and has graded one each of Cochrane, Cunningham, French, Frisch, Grove, Kammn, Kelly, Maranville, O'Doul, Ruel, Simmons. SGC doesn't seem to have graded any.

Facsimile Autograph Cards
Mickey Cochrane
Larry French
Lou Gehrig-end swing/empty stands
Lou Gehrig-hands on hips
Lefty Grove-end of delivery
Lefty Grove-top of windup
Lefty O’Doul-at bat
Al Simmons-port./hands behind back
Al Simmons-holding three bats

No Facsimile Autograph
Dick Cunningham-bat in left hand
Frankie Frisch-warmup jacket
Willie Kamm-hands on hips
George Kelly-batting cage
Rabbit Maranville-RHB #5 at left
Lefty O’Doul-hands on hips
Tom Oliver?-sitting in front of fence
Muddy Ruel-end of swing/catcher rt.
Simmons/Shinners?/Cochrane
1931 Tour team card

Awesome cards. Love seeing those images.

Grove Card and Team Photo....
 

Here are the two cards that I have from this set.

Translation....
 

Here's the translation of the back of the Grove postcard.

It looks to me like neither of these is on the checklist -- and I see that your team photo has a #13 on the bottom left where mine has a 15 and none of the others has a number.

Two O’Doul cards? Damn...

1931 Yuasa
 

I hope the following information is helpful:

There are many images, in which the same image was used in multiple Japanese sets produced by different manufacturers during the 1930s, 40s and 50s. The card that was previously posted with the number 15 on it has the same image as the card in the Yuasa set, but was printed by someone else, not Yuasa. No Yuasa cards have numbers on them. The card numbered 13 was taken at the same time as the number 15 image, but was shot from a different angle, and is not in the Yuasa set. The horizontal format Grove card is simply a 1931 postcard that has nothing to do with Yuasa. It was produced by a caramel company.

Thanks Gary, that is helpful. I guess we can scratch the possible additions to the checklist - especially the postcard which clearly doesn't fit (I missed the back of that one).

Do you have any info on any of the other issues that these images could have been a part of?

1931 Yuasa.m
 

Unfortunately, I don't have any information on the source of the numbered cards. But we are always making discoveries and learning new things in the world of Japanese cards. If I find out more about the numbered cards, I will post it

Thanks for the information , Gary

Given the similarities of these it looks to me like they were all produced at about the same time. That also makes sense because this tour was dwarfed by the 1934 tour so I would think there was probably a 2-3 year window for 1931 tour materials. Is that a fair conclusion?

Just noticed this in the current Heritage auction (not mine). Looks like the same as Brad's card, but as a signed photo.

1931 Yuasa
 

I am preparing material for the National, and in going through my collection, I discovered an O'Doul card which is identical to the O'Doul in the 1931 Yuasa set, except that this card has a number 5 in the lower right corner. The most interesting part is that included with the card is the envelope in which it was mailed to the Japanese collector who ordered it.

According to the envelope, the card was mailed by G. T. Sun Co., High Speed Photography, located in Kyobashi-ku, Tokyo, Japan. Therefore, we might surmise that cards with the number on them may have been produced by G. T. Sun, and not Yuasa.

Wow, that is really cool Gary! Do you mind sharing a scan of the card and the envelope? Also, my #1 question: Is there a date on the envelope?

1931 Yuasa
 

I'll try to do a scan later. But to answer your #1 question, there is no date on the envelope.

Interesting. Thanks again for more info.

Great stuff, everybody! Newer member to the forum, but love the wealth of information! Seriously, net54 is in my top 3 places to find info/theories/facts!

I was wondering if it was possible that G.T. Sun Co. printed these for the Yuasa Co. The Yuasa Co. is still around (I believe) established in 1666, company history link: [URL="http://www.yuasa.co.jp/english/corporate/outline.html"] I was just wondering if they outsourced the print job, which could explain several versions, over several years (as Bryan suggested). I wonder if The Yuasa Co. has a company archivist who could shed some light on details, etc?

Actually the company 新高 is Niitaka not Shintaka. The first character 新 can be read as Shin or Nii but in this case it is Nii. Below is a sample ad from Niitaka Seika featuring Lou Gehrig.

Lefty O'Doul
 

Here's Lefty, batting pose, NO facsimile auto:

This and the others shown are absolutely great.

Bumping this back up to see if anyone has more info or more cards to share.