1933 Goudey Blue Backs

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Posted By: Jon Canfield

REA will be auctioning off a blue-back Ruth. Does anyone have any information on the blue back Goudeys? Any idea where they came from, their purpose (a test issue, missing ink), etc?



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Posted By: Pennsylvania Ted

The BLUE printing on this card has to be the result of running out of YELLOW ink to create the normal GREEN lettering on the
backs of the 1933 Goudey's.

I've put together two 239-card sets, seen a lot of 33G's in my time; and, never seen a blue ink one....has to be a color error.

But, then I've been wrong before.

T-Rex TED

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Posted By: JimB

I have seen a couple of these before, but they are very scarce. I think King can give more background on these.
JimB

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Posted By: Jon Canfield

Ted - that was one of my initial thoughta as well. The Ruth does appear to be handcut which really doesn't help in the analysis since it could mean that the printer ran out of ink and sheets were pulled from circulation and then cut up, or it could mean these were pre-production cards, etc.

I know Rob Lifson has handled a '33 Goudey Manush with blue printing in the past.

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Posted By: Bobby Binder

I would think it only make sense they printed the backs with a single screen with the color being Green or in this case Blue. I think the theory of the yellow ink running out would not apply here.

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Posted By: Jeff S.

Agree Bobby - you would more than likely have misaligned backs revealing both blue and yellow if this were the case.

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Posted By: dan mckee

I have never seen a blue back Goudey before in my 40+ years of collecting. Jim must get around much better than me.

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Posted By: Red

I have seen bluish back ink Goudey cards but the ones I've seen were caused by the color shifting due to bleaching by chemical or light. Green ink is not pure green. It's a soup of blue and yellow ink. If exposed to bleaching the yellow will start going and the color you see will be less like green and leaning more and more to blue. While it's certainly possible that Goudey could have produced cards with blue text, either by intent or by mistake, it is something that could occur naturally through environmental damage, or on purpose by somebody with a junior scientist's kit. What is a little unusual with this card is that there's no ink on the back from a wet sheet transfer which is very common for 33's. If the card was bleached then that would be wiped clean. I'd be much more comfortable if the blue was on a card with the wet sheet transfer ink on it too. But if it's a proof, then the ink from a transfer wouldn't be there so a clean black would be normal. If it was known to have come from some sort of Goudey archives find then it would have a lot more premium than a card with no story behind it.

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Posted By: dennis

these are 1950's reprints printed up by collectors.

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Posted By: Al C.risafulli

You're killing me, Dennis.

-Al