March 24, 2022: Spring Auction
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 3/24/2022
Offered is an imposing array of the famed Wheaties “cards” from the beginning years of the company’s fabled alliance with Major League Baseball, cards that adorned the back of boxes of the popular breakfast cereal for many generations. A sterling lineup of more than two dozen Hall of Famers is headlined by a 1937 Series Nine Joe DiMaggio; in a genre heavily dependent on the scissoring skills of the youth of America, the offered array is fairly typical for the period, which is to say generally decent but less than perfect, and with some exceptions noted below. The years from 1935-38 ranged in varying sizes aligning with the cereal boxes, but generally were from 6 or 6 ½ inches by anywhere from 6 to 8 inches. In the spirit of the legendary “type collections,” the offered array is a great opportunity to pick up important cards from 10 different Wheaties Series from the earliest years of the fabled issue. The breakdown: 1) 1935 Series One “Fancy Frame with Script Signature” (6) – most are decently cut, Very Good to Excellent, including Collins (2), Goslin, Hubbell (Good) and Medwick (2, Fair); 2) 1936 Series Three (4) – Hartnett (Good), Newsom and Martin (Fair) and Vaughan (no frame); 3) 1936 Series Four (9) – Fair to Good, including Davis, Gehringer (2, Good and Fair), Hemsley, Herman (poorly cut), Medwick (2, Poor), Vosmik and Warneke; 4) 1936 Series Five (6) – most with awkward cuts, including Appling, Medwick (2), Herman, Ott and Dickey (Poor); 5) 1937 Series Six (5) – all awkward cuts, Fair to Good, including Medwick (Poor), Hubbell, Ruffing, Lewis and Manush; 6) 1937 Series Seven (2) – imperfect cuts, Trotsky and Radcliff; 7) 1937 Series Eight (2) – imperfect cuts, Appling and Gehringer (Poor); 8) 1937 Series Nine (8) – three are poorly cut, Fair to Good, including Joe DiMaggio (Poor), Martin, Moses (2, one is Poor), Mungo (2), Moore and Jordan; 9) 1938 Series 10 (7) – several awkward cuts, Fair to Good, including Waner, Walker, Bell, Lombardi, Whitney, Gehringer and Herman; 10) 1938 Series 11 (3) – Medwick (2, Good and Fair) and Fette; and 11) 1952 Wheaties full-color newspaper advertisement, 7 ½-by 10 ½ inches, featuring Bob Feller.
1935-38 Wheaties Baseball Series Group, DiMaggio and 27 HOFers (53)
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