Posted By:
Al C.risafulliBeautiful Greenberg, Jim. And a very tough card, particularly an accurately graded one.
I wouldn't call myself an expert, but I would say that this set is my baby. I've been collecting it for about four years, and have assembled a set that I'm proud of and that I love.
All my cards are currently at SGC being regraded. When I get them back I'll post a few scans here in this thread; I expect them back this week.
It's a fascinating set, a tough set in higher grades (actually a tough set in ANY grade), and the lack of information about the set out there leaves some mysteries which are fun to try and solve. Some basic information:
- The first series of cards was numbered from 241 (Gehringer) to 264 (Feller), resuming the numbering sequence of the 1933 Goudey set, which ended with #240. The cards, like the one Jim posted above, featured player caricatures on a plain background. The back of the cards indicate that the card is part of a series of 288 cards, which would imply that Goudey initially intended to release a 48-card set.
- The second series of cards was numbered from 265 (Gehringer) to 288 (Feller), and repeated all the same cards from the first series, but included black and white cartoons in the background of each card. The back of the cards indicate that the card is part of a series of 312 cards, which begins a mystery. My gut tells me that Goudey had some financial problems, and that it was inexpensive for them to reproduce the same 24 cards with some design modifications (the cartoons). However, the list of stars of the era that are missing from the set of 24 players tells me that the company likely had plans to introduce another 24 subjects at some point during 1938.
- There are two wrappers from this set, but they are very similar to one another. I owned them both for a while before I realized that they're different. I've got some info on my website about this.
- Goudey produced advertising pieces for both the high and low series.
- In 1937, Goudey purchased the assets of the bankrupt National Chicle company. In 1939, Goudey produced what is known as the R303 premiums, which I believe were produced to aid in the sale of second series 1938 Goudey cards. The backs of the 1939 R303 premiums utilize artwork from the National Chicle R344 "Rabbit Maranville How To" booklets that were included in the high number series of Batter Up cards. Attributed to "Diamond Stars Gum", the R303 premiums are the only example of the Goudey Gum company using any of the assets of the National Chicle company, with the exception of the Diamond Stars Gum brand itself.
-Popular opinion is that the high number "cartoon" cards are more scarce than the low number counterparts. This is untrue. The low number cards are more difficult than the high numbers, particularly in higher grades. A look at the pop reports will validate this to a degree, but the best way to validate it is just to try and build a set in higher grade. It's pretty easy to find the high numbers, but some of those low numbers - particularly commons - are a nightmare.
I've got a lot of info on this set on my website: http://www.swingbattaswing.com/page10/page10.html
And you're right - assembling this set in 8 is impossible, or at least you'd need to be very patient and wait for one of the few owners of this set at that level to liquidate their collection.
-Al
10-07-2007, 05:41 PM
1938 Goudey
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