How Rare is the 1933 Goudey Napoleon Lajoie?

[parkerj33]

Does anyone else recall (Ted ? ) that none other than Bill Heitman has attested on these very boards maybe 7-8 years ago that Durocher 106 was a custom made card printed by hobbyists. He was vague but seemed to indicate hobbyists had access to original plates or had "friends at the factory" print it for them. Seems to somewhat correlate to the idea that Woody had it made for him.

[tedzan]

My memory on this is not 100% certain; however, here is my input regarding this unusual "1933 Goudey" Durocher card. Circa 1982-83, I visited George Moll
at his home in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. George Moll was the genius behind Gum, Inc. Sports & Non-Sports cards (1938-1943). And, the Bowman Gum Co.
Sports & Non-Sports cards (1948-1955). Moll's Advertising Agency in Philadelphia (in conjunction with Warren Bowman) produced the above mentioned cards.

George Moll was a gracious gentleman in his 80's. He delighted in showing me his extensive collection of Sports cards (Play Ball's and Bowman's), uncut sheets,
sports posters, etc. Furthermore, he showed me some of his Non-Sports cards.....most notably the 1938 Horrors of War set. Then he pulled out an album which
contained high quality mylar sheets. Within those sheets was the most beautiful 1933 Goudey cards ever seen. I remember him telling me the 1933 Goudey set
was his favorite BB cards. He collected them when he was in his mid 30's.
Now, I do not recall if he had a Lajoie. I do recall him showing me the #106 Durocher card. It's my understanding that his Company printed this card in order to
fill a missing slot in this Goudey set. How many of these cards were printed is unknown.


TED Z
.

[barrysloate]

If my memory serves, Barry Halper had a #106 Durocher in his collection, and that it was part of his sale in 1999. I know I could look it up.

And I see it was mentioned in post #36. Oh well.

[parkerj33]

all, here is an archived thread from 2007, referring to the heitman claim:

Posted By: William Heitman

Back in the '50's, and even earlier than that, there was a group of hobby veterans who, in their spare time, liked to redo older sets of cards. They would make changes--like completely renumbering the 1933 Goudey set, or changing backs. They felt that these changes would make it obvious that these were reprints. Boy, were they wrong. Trouble is that they (many were affiliated to card producers, i.e. Topps, Bowman, Gum, Inc., etc) had access to vintage presses, inks and paper, and the ones they did turned out really good. I saw many of these when I was young and listened to my father laugh at just how good they were and just how stupid anyone would be to believe them to be real. "Strip" cards are not called that because they were printed on strips(which they very obviously were), but because they were originally sold to the public the very same way they were printed. Printing cards on sheets with multiple rows of cards was an advent of the '30's, the very same time that hobby veterans started to talk to each other and out of which grew this unusual idea of redoing old sets of cards. I've seen some of these cards surface over the years and cause a real stir in the hobby. A lot of it is wishful thinking. Unfortunately, a lot of the stir is the product of just plain lack of knowledge. The preferred method of storing cards that were collected until plastic sheets came along was in neat little rows in cardboard boxes(Velveta boxes were especially good). With that method of storage, after just a few years a fake looks just about as aged as a card that is ninety years old that was stored that same way. Reprints have been around for years and years. They weren't originally done to fool anyone, but, unfortunately, they do.

Post 76 in this thread:
http://www.net54baseball.com/showthr...eferrerid=4250

followup discussion in this thread
http://www.net54baseball.com/showthr...eferrerid=4250

[parkerj33]

Ted, I think George Moll could very well have been with the group that Bill H is referring to, or at least connected to them, to get his custom 106 made for him.

[Rich Klein]

The story I heard is that Woody Gelman created the Durocher card which would make sense since Don Lepore of Card Collectors Company was the one who found said card.

[toppcat]

Has anyone ever checked the Library of Congress to see if the Durocher was copyrighted along with the other 1933 cards?

The Woody Gelman connection is interesting-he is one of the few guys that would have been able to get a high quality card printed up.