1936 V355 World Wide Gum ?

[jp1216]

Just saw a BST post for several of these. Card #76 Vosmik caught my eye.
The final sentence on the back reads "Traded to StL from CLE in early 1937". I found the date of January 17th, 1937 listed on Baseball Reference.
Would that make this set a 1937 release, not '36? Did this set have a Series 2 release or updated edition?

Found this:

https://sabrbaseballcards.blog/2021/...g-zeke-bonura/

[Leon]

Nice SABR article. Seems they might have been put out in both years unless there was some kind of trade before the season ended, and it was announced sooner than finalized..Maybe I missed that part of it.

[bcbgcbrcb]

Jon:

Thank you for presenting this information. Besides being very interesting and likely prompting further research, this could have a big impact on a huge card in the hobby, the Joe DiMaggio from this series. Always believed to be a 1936 issue, most advanced collectors singled out this DiMaggio card to be the premier rookie card choice amongst his other 1936 Goudey cards, which were mostly all oversize compared to more traditional cards. In recent times, this card has climbed well into five-figures with high-grade examples even reaching 6-figures. If further research does wind up ultimately dating this set to 1937, this DiMaggio is really no longer a rookie card then. How much impact does that have on this card value in the future?

This scenario has played out in the past a number of times and those cards originally considered to be rookie cards ultimately were not and subsequently, values dropped quite dramatically. Probably a long way to go here before we reach that point but knowing this, would the WWG DiMaggio card be one that you would invest a huge sum of money into at today’s prices?

[Baseball Rarities]

The set appears to have been issued over the two years of 1936-37. While the Vosmik card seems to have been produced in 1937, there are several cards that seem to have been issued in 1936.

The back the card of Al Lopez card references his trade to Boston "At the close of last season..." This trade occurred on December 12, 1935 which would lead one to believe that it was produced during the 1936 season.

Gehrig's card states that he "Scored the most runs in 1935." which he did, crossing the plate 125 times. He also led both leagues in runs in 1936 with a career high 167. If this card was made in 1937, you would certainly think that this would be mentioned as well.

Images were stolen from the interwebs.

[nolemmings]

It’s pretty clear that this set was issued in 1937, at least in part. Bob Seeds is identified as being with the Newark Bears– both on the team line and in his bio (“with Newark at present”), and he was not optioned there until mid-January, 1937. He is card #28, so the set was likely not issued in multiple series starting in 1936 unless it was skip-numbered. Also, if no variation exists for Seeds with different (1936) info then it appears that not all cards were produced in both years.

The back info on these cards is inconsistent. Several cards indicate 1936 performance stats or events, and others refer to “last season” stats or events that occurred in 1935. Then there are cards like Vosmik, which refers to “last season” stats taken from1935 while then stating he was traded in 1937. Seems it would not have been difficult to either update to his 1936 stats or simply replace “last season” with “in 1935".

I’ll leave it to the WWG aficionados and/or Goudey experts to provide more research and info, but it is an interesting topic given Joe D’s status in the rookie card world.

[BillyCoxDodgers3B]

Originally Posted by bcbgcbrcb

If further research does wind up ultimately dating this set to 1937, this DiMaggio is really no longer a rookie card then. How much impact does that have on this card value in the future?

None whatsoever.

[Leon]

Originally Posted by BillyCoxDodgers3B

None whatsoever.

I politely disagree. It makes a difference, just not sure how much lower it would be. There are lots of rookie hof collectors.
.

[BillyCoxDodgers3B]

Originally Posted by Leon

I politely disagree. It makes a difference, just not sure how much lower it would be. There are lots of rookie hof collectors.
.

At least three reasons for my opinion. I'm forgetting a fourth.

1. The 52T Mantle has never been a rookie card, yet... And for DiMaggio, the WWG may now apparently be his equivalent to that.

2. As someone already mentioned, other 1936 issues are oversized.

3. This card is too iconic to lose sustained value based on such findings. (Yes, points one and three are pretty much the same thing! Wish I could remember the other factor I thought of last night.)

Its value naturally diminishes if handled with nacho fingers and one fails to deftly lick it off.

While I'm not comparing the two cards, if a stash of 10 (let's just say low grade) Wagners was discovered and they all hit the market simultaneously, it wouldn't dampen value in the slightest, would it? Maybe a little at the time of initial sale, but that would quickly fade afterward. Then again, maybe it wouldn't. The added attention from such a find might even increase value not too much down the road. It makes me wonder what would happen if ten PSA 10 52 Mantles were discovered/sold all at once. I'm sure both these scenarios have previously been discussed to death; I don't read through everything on the main page.)