Master
 

Some people say (like me) that the set is not complete until you have finished the Master Set. That’s all three series built separately by year of issue .
It’s a challenge, not impossible but way up on the difficulty scale.
(Multiple Grove/Greenberg etc )

I’ve been slowed down lately but I’m within 11 cards of the Master .
The basic set is complete.

I completed a low grade master set a few years ago. The biggest challenge is that most online listings don't indicate which back variation the card is so it took a lot of looking through listings and hoping that a picture of the back was included. Definitely easier to work on in person at shows.

Diamond Stars are such fun, artistic cards...here are three that depict motion in different ways. The Suhr card has the runner barreling down the widening perspective lines toward Gus, Myatt's mask is definitely headed swiftly toward the ground as is evidenced by those white jet trails, and Jordan has just got on the conveyor belt to first base after his follow through swing, based upon those cool red and yellow racing stripes in the background.

Brian

I touched on Goudey's use of Ruth and Gehrig in 1933 (both) 34 (Lou) 35 (Babe) via their shared sports agent, Christy Walsh, in an article for SABR.

sabrbaseballcards.blog/2023/05/11/1935-goudey-over-the-border-line/

Walsh handled endorsements for many sports stars and appears to have set up 1934 Goudey as a vehicle for Gehrig that paralleled his Wheaties endorsement and attempt to make Lou a movie star. Chuck Klein was also a client of Walsh, which might be why he appeared for one series that year. (Ruth still appeared in the 1934 World Wide Gum set using his 1933 card photo, so perhaps those deals focused on the USA more than Canada.) Klein's also missing from Diamond Stars, so perhaps Walsh asked for higher prices on all three than National Chicle cared to pay.

Big fan of the proof sheet of proposed DS cards that surfaced after bankruptcy and wish the company had survived long enough to print them.

Thanks for posting the proposed sheet of cards. While some of the issued cards had backgrounds that were just color fields (like Byrd and Traynor), these look like they were going in an even more abstract, Art Deco direction.

Here is a 3-pack of smoking Diamond Stars smokestacks.

Brian

And to tie in with the awesome proof sheet posted by Matthew, here are three that have blocks of color that were a precursor to some of the angular ones seen on the sheet (wouldn't it have been great if those 12 shown on the sheet had been issued as #97 to 108, instead of the repeat designs). It definitely looks like they were intending to go all-in on the deco backgrounds, and even introducing curlicues into the mix.

Brian

3 more Diamond Stars displaying classic poses, great color, and incredible artistry.

Brian

And one final Diamond Stars trio, this showcasing catchers. Lopez could have been in my Diamond Stars in motion post, but I guess posting is not an exact science.

A side note - in my opinion the Diamond Stars set has the highest percentage of catchers depicted in the act of catching/sporting catcher's gear of any set, and these catcher cards all have very different and interesting depictions of the players.

Brian

The Diamond Stars and Sky Birds sets strike me as filled with love for cards-as-art. Even if the company itself lasted a short time, what a great legacy.

Thanks for posting the info and sheet Spike. I was 47th underbidder on that in Mastro eons ago and bought the reprint set of those unissued cards from Fritsch for the binder set. They were really pushing hard into Art Deco and wish they had been issued.

The art love was what attracted me to pursue it, the first prewar set I pursued, a few decades ago. And eventually I couldn't resist dabbling in the Sky Birds, its artistic cousin, even though I am almost strictly a Baseball collecting hound.

And this topic provoked me to post a bunch of non-HOF examples, just to show how artistically grand a set this is overall.


Brian

Diamond Stars
 

I love this set! Here are a few from my PSA Registry set.

Here are some examples from Diamonds Stars brother from the same fantastically artistic (National Chicle) mother, the Sky Birds set.

Brian

I have learned a ton from these posts, so thanks everybody for sharing.

I have always admired these, and found myself stopping every time I would see images posted online, or in eBay listings. I have decided that, once I make a bit more headway in my passion project (a master set of all Topps Padres, 1969-1980, PSA 8 or higher) I am going to make this my first vintage pursuit.

As I am inexperienced with vintage, I think it is safest to go with graded, but I am undecided between SGC and PSA. At the risk of inflaming any passions, I'll just ask if there is an either pathway to success, either in population of graded cards or price difference, between the two. I don't have to commit to one or the other, but I'd prefer the uniformity of a single slab.

Thanks a lot!

I have 53 cards (including one being reviewed by eBay) of which 34 are PSA and 19 are SGC. I am happy with both graders and do not have a preference if it is a card I need. I am guessing that if you want to concentrate on one, you will find more PSA cards available and they will be more expensive (the price difference probably being greater in higher grades).

May be late to enter new bids, but a lot of DS in the REA auction are at very cheap/reasonable prices!

This set is eye candy.

Just to wrap things up…

Was happy to win these last night

Thanks for sharing. That's pretty awesome.