1936 V355 World Wide Gum ?

[Spike]

Originally Posted by nolemmings

In some sense this WWG set reminds me of the Diamond Stars 1934-36 distribution, although that company had the decency to print copyright dates on the cards for us to figure out when they were issued, or at least which came first. We also know that National Chicle issued its Batter-Up cards over the three-year span 1934-36. Here several of the WWG cards have bio info that ends before 1936 and with no mention of what happened “last season”. It’s almost as if these were contemplated if not produced before 1936. One card that has stood out in my cursory review is Red Rolfe, listed as a Giants infielder. Rolfe of course was a Yankee, which makes this card a UER; however, I see that Red came up as shortstop in 1934 but the following year was the starting third baseman for the Bombers, playing 136 games there and only 17 at SS. Arguably he should have been known to WWG as a 3B well before 1936. Could it be that some of these cards are actually from 1935?

Excellent thinking and I agree the Goudey and WWG design/production dating could be more complicated than it appears. Cards from the American 1935 Goudey baseball set, for example, lack any date or company name. There's a chance Goudey left those out in an attempt to avoid paying import taxes while distributing on either side of the US/Canada border.

While I do think the 1936-37 WWG set reached stores in those two years, it might've been created earlier and hard to know today which country handled its design. Layout work appears to be by hand, as #69 misspelled "chewing" on its back without any known correction. Putting Red Rolfe on the Giants seems like that kind of goof.