R313A Gold Medal Foods / Flour / Wheaties

[abothebear]

Tim Newcomb's Old Cardboard article http://www.oldcardboard.com/misc/issue06/issue06.asp ).

Set     Env.?  Scan?    Player          Team
R313A-1   y    y     Tommy Bridges        Detroit Tigers
R313A-1   y    y     Mickey Cochrane      Detroit Tigers
R313A-1   y    y     Dizzy Dean          St. Louis Cardinals
R313A-1   y    y     Paul Dean           St. Louis Cardinals
R313A-1   y    y     Frank Frisch         St. Louis Cardinals
R313A-1   y    y     Goose Goslin        Detroit Tigers
R313A-1   y    y     William Hallahan     St. Louis Cardinals
R313A-1   y    y     Fred Marberry        Detroit Tigers
R313A-1   y    y     Pepper Martin        St. Louis Cardinals
R313A-1   y    y     Joe Medwick          St. Louis Cardinals
R313A-1   y    y     William Rogell      Detroit Tigers
R313A-1   y    y     Jo-Jo White       Detroit Tigers

R313A-2   y    y     Earl Averill          Cleveland Indians
R313A-2   n    n     George Blaeholder    St. Louis Browns
R313A-2   n    y     Irving Burns        St. Louis Browns
R313A-2   n    y     Bruce Campbell      ?32-34 St. Louis Browns
R313A-2   n    n     Tex Carleton      St. Louis Cardinals
R313A-2   n    y     George Earnshaw    ?looks like As uniform (1933)
R313A-2   y    y     Odell Hale           Cleveland Indians
R313A-2   y    y     Mel Harder         Cleveland Indians
R313A-2   n    y     Chuck Klein        Chicago Cubs
R313A-2   n    n     Jack Knott          St. Louis Browns
R313A-2   n    y     Al Simmons         Chicago White Sox
R313A-2   y    y     Joe Vosmik          Cleveland Indians
R313A-2   n    n     Bill Walker           St. Louis Cardinals 33-36
R313A-2   y    y     Hal Trosky           Cleveland Indians

R313A-2   n    n     Fabian Gaffke         Des Moines Demons
R313A-2   n    y     Roy Hudson         Des Moines Demons
R313A-2   n    n     Albert Marchand         Des Moines Demons
R313A-2   n    n     Ossie Orwoll         Des Moines Demons

The "Env" column is marked with a "y" if a card has been found along with a Gold Medal Foods envelope.

So far, I have not been able to find a scan of Blaeholder or the alleged Faber.

George Earnshaw appears to be wearing an As uniform (his ’33 team), He played for the CWS in ’34 and part of ’35.

Hal Trosky was a rookie in ’33 (only playing in 11 games). His first full season was ’34.

Roy Hudson's signature includes "1934" and " Des Moines Demons." The photo is flanked by design elements not seen on other R313As except the other horizontal Des Moines card (Marchand).

The Al Simmons signature includes a salutation.

The Lipsett auction listing on OldJudge claims a Rogell card is part of a grouping of additional (to the 12 Cards/Tigers World Series cards) R313As. I haven’t seen anything about whether this is an additional Rogell card or if the auction mistakenly listed a standard Rogell as being part of an additional six. Only Klein and Simmons are pictured on the auction record. That same auction listing claims that the Vosmik was mailed as a postcard in 1935.

In another thread, a Dizzy Dean (R313A-1) is shown mailed as a postcard dated October 22 1934. A recent ebay listing (2/2021) shows a Paul Dean and Dizzy Dean used as postcards from Minnesota with postmarks of October 1943 (the 18th and the 25th).

The 2006 Beckett Guide lists 10 R313A-2s. According to the 2008 auction listing on Old Judge, Klein, Simmons, and Earnshaw, extend the checklist to 13 (possibly 14 if there is a 2nd Rogell (doubtful)) bringing the total to 25 (26 depending on the Rogell). The current Beckett website has these 25 listed. The PSA registry has 20 listed in their pop report (titled Gold Medal Flour), and 22 listed on their checklist. Their pop report has a Hal Trosky listed (not on their checklist nor the Beckett list). The Trotsky brings the total to 26 (27 if there is a 2nd Rogell).

In 2017, ebay auction introduced 10 new cards consistent with the physical characteristics and mailing method as the R313As, They were of the Indianapolis Indians minor league team and included the manager.

Several sources claim these were premiums for a Wheaties mail-in. I am curious about the primary source of this (I know Tim Newcomb wrote about these in issue #6 of Old Cardboard but I don’t have it and can’t find a copy).

According to another thread (Tim quoting his article), “four players from the Des Moines Demons and a Red Faber” are also known (via "an ultra-reliable source” to belong or be consistent with this issue. Red Faber (CWS) retired after the ’33 season.

All teams represented (except Earnshaw if he is indeed pictured with Philadelphia) are Midwest teams. Cincinnati is not represented.

Evidence supports the idea that the number typed on the front of the envelope was the number of cards included.

If anyone has information to add to this please do so. Scans of those without scans posted would be greatly appreciated.

Updated 11/6/2016: for formatting changes and with new information supplied from the thread.
Updated 1/5/2017: for new picture link addresses and grammar fixes.
Updated 8/26/2021: for new photo charts and added information.

[swarmee]

Nice work; thanks for the sleuthing.

[MikeGarcia]

Hey wow thanks for all the digging...the Jack Burns has a layer of nicotine protecting his gloss except where the thumbtacks were positioned

..is there a salutation on your image of Al Simmons ?....I've been needing that one but I always get outbid...

..

[abothebear]

Thanks, Mike!

Do you know if there are/were envelopes associated with any of those? It would be great to connect them directly to Gold Medal Foods.

The Simmons image does have the salutation. It is taken from the 2008 Lew Lipsett auction listing. http://www.oldjudge.com/archive/200811/sets/56/

George

[jeffmohler]

Hi George

The lot of four that recently sold on Ebay included the envelope. The envelope's return address was Gold Medal Foods. The stamp was a precancel from Minneapolis, Minnesota. The addressee was to a person in Ohio, which makes sense when you consider that the four cards were Indians. I think it is safe to attribute this issue to Gold Medal Foods. Whether they were a Wheaties premum or not, I don't know.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1934-Gold-Me...p2047675.l2557

[abothebear]

Yes, thank you, Jeffrey. I should note that in the summary.

I was wondering about the 3 additional ones that Mike posted, especially the minor leaguer (given the oddity of its design and that it isn't a major league player).

[jeffmohler]

For the record here are my four cards. I picked them up on Ebay about 4 years ago as part of a group of wide pens. There was actually a thread on this forum at the time wondering why a group of eight ungraded wide pens went for $500.00! A couple people thought it was crazy.

I think Rhett Yeakley said he was the underbidder. He and I were the only ones who saw the listing and recognized it for what it was. It isn't often I have more knowledge than most of the posters on the Board

What I think is interesting is that I believe the ones I bought were probably an original grouping. The one on Ebay appeared to be as well. Each lot included four cards. I wonder if that was a "maximum" number that would be sent out in one envelope? There really isn't enough evidence one way or another I guess.

I think this is a fascinating subset and often search Ebay for these cards, but I missed the most recent group.

[abothebear]

I remember that thread. That might have been the first non-cardinals/tigers I saw).

I have wondered about the number sent in envelopes too. I won an auction with an envelope that included 6 from the R313A-1 set. I assumed that they all came together. I vaguely recall seeing a grouping of 5 with an envelope, which I thought was odd at the time. I hesitate to bring it up because I can't verify it.

The auction was a lot that had 20 total cards, the other 14 being the very thin stock R cards. All 20 were sent to me in the envelope, So more than 6 can fit into a Gold Medal Foods envelope (I don't know what the postage limit would be).

I wonder if the number that were sent out had to do with what was sent in to receive them (box tops, coupons, ???).

[JLange]

I recall from the Old Cardboard article that the envelopes that contained these cards had a number printed below the address that was thought to indicate how many cards were in the envelope. I noticed though that the most recent eBay auction with four Cleveland cards came in an envelope with the number two printed on it.

[abothebear]

There looks to be a picture of a subject I don't have a scan of between Hale and Simmons. I can't tell who it is from what I have here http://www.oldcardboard.com/misc/issue06/issue06.asp .

[abothebear]

Originally Posted by JLange

I recall from the Old Cardboard article that the envelopes that contained these cards had a number printed below the address that was thought to indicate how many cards were in the envelope.

Cool. I just checked mine and it had a "6" typed on it, same as the number of cards I received in the lot.

[abothebear]

Still looking for scans of (at least) Blaeholder, Campbell, Faber, Knott, and 3 of the 4 Des Moines Demons.

And I am personally still looking to upgrade my Fred Marberry. 

[Leon]

Originally Posted by abothebear

Still looking for scans of (at least) Blaeholder, Campbell, Faber, Knott, and 3 of the 4 Des Moines Demons.

And I am personally still looking to upgrade my Fred Marberry. 

Good luck and thanks for posting the information above for all to use. It is appreciated.

[timn1]

Hi George and all,

Thanks for doing this work, George - good to see someone interested in these. I've got some info for you, definitely. Puzzled about the Trosky not being checklisted, though. If you look back at my article in OC #6 I think you will find it there - and the Des Moines players identified as Gaffke, Hudson, Marchand, and Orwoll. I will email you with more-

Cheers,
Tim

[timn1]

Looks like Old Cardboard issue 6 is still available for only $8 for anyone interested:

http://www.oldcardboard.com/subscriptions.asp

[abothebear]

Thanks, Tim!

And thanks for the back issue link.

George

[whiteymet]

Hi Guys:

Bringing this thread back because I just picked up 7 of these in a group of stuff. Had no idea what they were until I researched and saw this thread.

I have Cochrane, Dizzy Dean, Paul Dean, Frisch, Goslin, Marburry and Medwick.

Has there been any new update or info on this set?

Not planning on keeping these, but like to know about the things I have.

[timn1]

Hi,
I'm not aware of any new additions to the checklist since the 2016 thread above. I think my article in Old Cardboard is still the biggest source of info on the sets.

The Cardinals and Tigers World Series issue isn't super-hard to find, with the Deans and the other HOFers it's fun to collect. Why was there no Greenberg, though?

Tim

[Marckus99]

I have a Hale, Harder and Vosmik.
Was able to pick up the Klein last year.

All are very difficult to find.

- Mark

[BigBeerGut]

Neat black&whites! Thanks for posting I never seen R313.

[Leon]

Originally Posted by timn1

Hi,
I'm not aware of any new additions to the checklist since the 2016 thread above. I think my article in Old Cardboard is still the biggest source of info on the sets.

The Cardinals and Tigers World Series issue isn't super-hard to find, with the Deans and the other HOFers it's fun to collect. Why was there no Greenberg, though?

Tim

Wasn't Greenberg in some other similar type sets?

[timn1]

Greenberg is in a couple of the R314 sets, but I’ve always found it strange that Wheaties didn’t include him or Gehringer in the World Series set, since they were Detroit’s biggest stars.

Tim

Originally Posted by Leon

Wasn't Greenberg in some other similar type sets?

[abothebear]

Thread bump for updated scans, photo chart, and additional info.

Any corrections or new information on this set(s) would be appreciated.

Thanks go (again) to Tim for new scans and info.