Looking Back: National Chicle
Last Updated on Thursday, 18 February 2010 05:25 Written by DaMMAgecontrol.com Thursday, 18 February 2010 05:25
As card manufacturers continue to struggle with new design ideas, 2009 once again brought us many retro designs that hearkened back to the earlier days of sports card collecting. With some of the more prominent designs having already been used in past years, Topps chose to resurrect the 1935 National Chicle design for its 2009 football and 2010 baseball lineup.
For those of you who are not familiar with National Chicle, they were one of the leading producers of chewing gum in their day and began producing sports cards to promote their product. A direct competitor to Goudey (which undoubtedly most of you are now familiar with) and DeLong (which is one of the few mainstream sets that has yet to be the subject of a retro set), National Chicle decided to produce a set comprised entirely of football stars in 1935. This set features some of the most desirable football cards issued before World War II. In terms of how they were issued, the hobby was beginning to take on the form it would hold for more than half a century. Several cards were paired together with a piece of National Chicle gum, wrapped in wax paper, and sold painfully cheap in stores across the country.
What might surprise you about the original National Chicle is that many of the Hall of Fame players featured in the set can be purchased at auction for less than the price of a hobby box of the 2009 Topps product. For example, a ‘raw’ Ken Strong, Hall of Fame halfback for the New York Giants, can be had for only $100 [eBay item #: 190369684612].
In addition to Strong, Detroit Lions Hall of Fame Quarterback Earl “Dutch” Clark is featured on card #1 in the set. Because the set was put together by collectors in the era before card storage and protection, the first and last card issued is often found in poor condition because the card was exposed and often creased by a rubber band. Clark can currently be had for $225 in SGC 2 [400068293887] or PSA 5 for $499 [310198429643]
or ‘raw’ poor for $59.85 [220446824849]
.
Now that the appetizers have been served it is time for the main course.
The set features two cards PSA’s Joe Orlando selected for his list of the Top 250 Sportscards in the Hobby: Knute Rocke and Bronko Nagurski. By the time the card was issued in 1935, Rockne had already died in a tragic plane crash in 1931 and established himself as the most legendary coach in college football at Notre Dame. The fact that the Rocke card was not issued during his lifetime does nothing to hurt the value as evidenced by this SGC 8 currently available for $5,250 and SGC 7
for $2,600.
Nagurski was the famed Hall of Fame back for the Chicago Bears and a member of the NFL’s 75th Anniversary Team. This card is highly collected and is the most treasured card in the set, as Nagurski is one of only a handful of early NFL players whose name resonates with current collectors. Even graded PSA 1 the card commands $3,888 [290388248939] because of the card’s place in the hobby. One Nagurski is currently at auction ‘raw’ [170447265578], but has several red flags including a fuzzy scan and a holder not suited for the card. It will be interesting to see where it ends.
Now, for those of you who collect baseball and think the cards look familiar, that is because National Chicle also produced the second most prevalent baseball card set of the 1930s. Between 1934 and 1936 they produced the set known as ‘Diamond Stars.’ Second only to 1933 Goudey because of the omission of Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig, examples from this set can often be found at very reasonable prices. However, many all-time greats are featured in the set including Lefty Grove, Mickey Cochrane, Bill Dickey, Bill Terry, Rogers Hornsby, Mel Ott, Hank Greenberg, Jimmie Foxx, Charlie Gehringer, Pie Traynor, and Ernie Lombardi.
In the era of aviation following the exploits of Charles Lindbergh and Amelia Earhart, National Chicle produced a popular non-sport issue as well. Issued in 1933 and 1934, the set featured brilliant color artwork of both aircraft and pilots. The Earhart card is extremely desirable (as it would still be several years before she would go missing over Howland Island) and was referenced by Topps in the 2009 edition with the inclusion of Earhart as an ‘Era Icon’ with an accompanying stamp relic. Sky Birds also features Charles Lindbergh, several World War I aces (including the Red Baron and US ace Eddie Rickenbacker) and a young Jimmy Doolittle almost a decade before he’d lead the famed bombing raid over Tokyo.
The Topps Vault has begun listing several pieces of original artwork by the artists who brought the 2009 set to life. These highly desirable pieces are being listed out piecemeal through eBay auction, with several listed as of the publication of this article.
As a final word to those of you considering purchasing a hobby box of 2009 National Chicle. You can take the risk of pulling a single color swatch of a jersey of a running back two seasons away from breaking down and an autograph of a player who dropped more passes than he caught, or you can take the money and make a run on a few 75 year old cards back when the game was played by men with names like Bronko who you would not sit next to in a dive bar. Happy bidding!
Hey, I really like the look of your site. What theme are you using?
Afterburner, by rocket theme http://www.rockettheme.com
For additional information on National Chicle products and history, visit http://www.nationalchicle.com
Great piece Chris, contact me if you have an interest in writing a piece for our website.