1933 Goudey BB FT

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In 1933 the Goudey Gum Company of Boston, fresh off its successful launch of Indian Gum, made the decision to produce a 240 card baseball series. More than seventy years later, the set still stands as a benchmark to which all subsequent gum card issues are compared. Goudey’s 1933 Big League Gum set initiated a Golden Age for collectibles. The cards' most recognizable feature is their 2-3/8" by 2-7/8" size (much bigger than their predecessors' considerably narrower dimensions), as well as colorful, artistic illustrations that set a modern standard in terms of eye-appeal. The issue originally consisted of 239 cards, with a 240th card (the remarkably scarce Napoleon Lajoie #106) being produced in 1934 in response to consumer outcry and mailed to fans only upon request. Prominent among the 1933 series' content is an abundance of Hall of Famers. Highlights include four different Ruth portrayals, with #144 double-printed and thus found in packs at twice the rate of lesser figures. There are three cards of Joe Cronin (#s 63, 109 and 189) and two of Jimmy Foxx (#s 29 and 154), as well as two each of Hornsby, Hubbell and other luminaries. The 1933 Goudey cards were printed on ten different press sheets containing 24 cards apiece, and the subjects found on the first two of those sheets ("Low Numbers") are a bit scarcer than the issue's other entries. Goudey's 1933 cards were also printed on thicker cardboard stock than their tobacco card predecessors, with that thickness establishing the template for modern day cards.