Joe DiMaggio's Rookie Card?

[packs]

What about the National Chicle? He's still wearing number 18 on that card. It must be the earliest image of him as a professional, no?

[triwak]

Or this. (Mine, so I'm biased lol)!

[MikeGarcia]

Originally Posted by triwak

Or this. (Mine, so I'm biased lol)!

..now it's a matter of which Gum maker sold their product in the stores first.

..

[Exhibitman]

R312 and R314 are in the American Card Catalog. They count. The WWG card is awesome (when unaltered) but is Canadian, so no dice, eh. The Zeenuts are my favorites but they are pre-rookies.

[Steve D]

For me, it's between the two 1936 issues, as the Zeenuts were PCL (minor League) cards.

The 1936 World-Wide Gum cards were issued in Canada. How were people in say, Virginia or Missouri supposed to get them at the time?

The 1936 R312 Issue was issued in the United States, but it is a "Premium" issue (not normal cards). Still, they were available to baseball fans in the US.

So, you have a quandary.

I vote for the R312 issue being Joe's RC, as it is a US issue, and was available for baseball fans in the US to purchase.

Steve

[yanksfan09]

I really like this one!

I would say any 1936 issue can be called a rookie card, with zeenuts being pre rookie/ minor league issues ( and awesome!)

[bcbgcbrcb]

Any of the 1936 issues that are "cards". The Zeenuts are pre-rookies as mentioned previously and anything after 1936 is too late. The R312 is the one most on the fence. Size-wise it's pretty close to the max as far as what I would consider for "rookie card" status, still a little bit smaller than a cabinet card size such as W600's so I could live with it as being a DiMaggio rookie card.

[Rhotchkiss]

I don’t own any DiMaggio cards. But if/when I do, it will be the Zeenut batting followed right behind by Zeenut throwing. Those are minor league cards, so by definition they cannot be rookie cards. But in my opinion, they are the cards to own