1933 Goudey

[brianp-beme]

Long time hobby notable Lew Lipset had an excellent article on the 1933 Goudey set that was located within the pages of the Sport Americana Baseball Card Price Guide #4 issued in 1982. I kept a copy of this guide just because of this article. Lew utilized info gleaned from uncut sheets (10 sheets of 24 cards each) as well as recollections of old-time collectors. The collector recalled that the first 7 sheets were issued by early July of 1933. The eighth sheet (the first to not have the advertising panel on the bottom) was distributed by the middle of August, with the ninth sheet issued shortly afterwards. The tenth and final sheet is the "World Series" sheet featuring Senators and Giants players which was available at the end of October. Here is the numbers seen on each sheet (Goudey evilly skip numbered to keep the kids buying):

1st: 1-5, 25-35, 45-52
2nd: 6-24, 36-40
3rd: 41-44, 58-67, 75-79, 92-96
4th: 53-57, 68-74, 80-91
5th: 100-105, 115-120, 130-141
6th: 143-165 (with 2 #144 - Babe Ruth)
7th: 166-189
8th: 190-213
9th: 97-99, 128-129, 142, 214-231
10th: 107-114, 121-127, 232-240

The double print of the Ruth #144 accounts for the one number which was not printed, #106. Collectors who wrote into Goudey about this missing number eventually were sent the famous #106 Nap Lajoie card the following year.

Brian

[trdcrdkid]

Elwood Scharf, who did a ton of groundbreaking research on Exhibit cards, was the old-time collector whose recollections Lipset used. Here is a thread where I posted the November 1970 article by Scharf with his memories of collecting 1933 Goudeys as a kid. Versions of this article appeared in several other places, but I think this was the first.

http://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=219310

[Kawika]

Thank you for the informative breakdown of the '33 Goudey distribution, Brian.
And the Scharf article was a fun read. Think I'll spend a little time today looking at my set.