Was Goudey A Regional Or National Issue
 

I could probably look this up but I am being lazy. How wide ranging was Goudey distribution?

Pretty certain it was a national issue. Lionel Carter reported collecting them as a boy in Illinois.

Lot of places west of Illinois if it was a national issue.

Technically both. I do not believe that 1933 Goudeys were marketed in every region of the US, however they did market them in several regions including Northern California (SF Bay Area, Sacramento, Santa Rosa) as original groups have turned up here. Goudey likely marketed in all of the cities represented by major league teams. You'll also notice that several players were depicted as minor league players and those markets (minimally) were likely also targeted. Based on surviving examples, the marketing of post 1933 Goudeys was likely scaled back

That's good info, thanks Mark..

Does anyone know about the distribution of the 1939 V351's in Canada? It would seem from the paucity of surviving examples advertised for sale that it must have been quite limited, even given that the population of the US was about 10X that of Canada.

Thanks in advance,

Larry

If the availability of baseball cards in Canada in the late 70's is any indication, even "national" distribution would have been very spotty at best.

On our cross country trip with a couple detours into Canada I bought 78OPC in the eastern part, near Niagara falls somewhere. Our route was Niagara up over the lakes to Sault St Marie. There was barely anything along that route at all. Many towns were double digit population. In the Canadian side of Glacier park they had cards in the gift shop :) 1977 OPC! When I asked if they had any 78's they told me they'd just gotten the cards a couple days before and were a bit surprise they'd gotten year old cards.


I'd have to think that Goudey was marketed nationwide, any candy wholesaler who ordered from them would have gotten a letter or ad of some sort. But it's entirely possible that individual wholesalers far enough away from a major league city didn't bother ordering any. The same would probably be true for any stores that were buying directly.

I wonder if any of Goudeys internal paperwork survived? Customer lists mailing lists that sort of stuff.

Steve B