1932 or 1933 U.S. Caramel?
 

Most catalogs I've seen date U.S. Caramel's "Famous Athletes" set as 1932, but several card backs refer to season events FROM 1932, so could've come out in Nov/Dec at the earliest, and more likely not until Opening Day in 1933.

#5 Combs (in my post below) includes his 1932 season stats, #11 Hornsby refers to his Oct 1932 trade, #12 Cochrane includes his 1932 season stats, #23 Foxx includes his season stats, etc.

http://number5typecollection.blogspo...arl-earle.html

We already know U.S. Caramel severely short-printed #16 Lindstrom for that set, so there's a chance they also split-numbered the set, with half coming out in 1932 and the other half in 1933. Straddling two seasons strikes me as unlikely, though. Anyone know why this set was dated 1932?

Burdick made a mistake.

http://www.network54.com/Forum/15365...+li%20%20sting

http://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=160267

Excellent, thanks! Will update my suppositions in the post and glad to see Bob Lemke made the SCD update years ago.

Given the similar look between 1933 U.S. Caramel & Goudey sets, anyone know if they were competitors copping each others' work or actually shared the same designer?

They don't look similar at all to me? Both companies were based in Boston though, for what that's worth.

Unless I missed an earlier set, Goudey and National Chicle mimicked the size, card stock, "framing," and back layout from the 1932 R114 U.S. Caramel American Presidents set.

All 3 companies might've used the same card printer, so those card details might've been practical coincidence instead of "borrowed." Hard to say for sure without knowing more about who designed them and whether they worked inside each company or as third-party artists. I agree the baseball player art varies quite a bit, with Goudey and Chicle going well beyond U.S. Caramel's limited palette.

How about C.A. Briggs? Same contest and amount of caramel cards. Boston area too! Ruth is in this set. I believe they are a 1933 issue.

<a href="http://s120.photobucket.com/user/tortie425/media/CABriggs_zps2ca9c5a2.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o179/tortie425/CABriggs_zps2ca9c5a2.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo CABriggs_zps2ca9c5a2.jpg"/></a>

edited to add the ACC for this set is R348

Thanks Richard, 1933 C.A. Briggs is a nice match for that back design and style of marketing. Net54's non-sports section also turned up the 1930 Schutter-Johnson "I'm Going To Be" set made in Chicago or Brooklyn (instead of Boston) with a similar deal. I suspect the practice goes back further in trading cards, but good to see the growing number of 1930s matches in the Boston area. That might've been something every company did in those days.

Where did you see the number R348? I don't see it in my 1967 version of the ACC.

http://luckeycards.com/peunc1933cabriggsruth.jpg

Here ya go Leon, published several years back from the NSB (non sport bible).

http://tinyurl.com/l9ndlfe

Thanks Richard. I looked through the Sterling Guide, Sugar's Sports Collectors Bibles and each version of the ACC and didn't find it

So those guys did a non sports book, much, much after the ACC and gave numbers to sets. Interesting and I am sure useful for the non sports crowd....

Yes very useful, especially when submitting cards to PSA. When I've sent cards not yet graded by them, I just quote the page number in the NSB and no problem. The author, Chris Watson, spent years collecting data with help from board members on the non-sport side and it was a labor of love at nearly 1000 pages:)