Eventually I planned to pick up some of the 1935 National Chicle Football cards. It’s rare that you can find even a low grade one for less than $25. I did find one for less than that on COMC and knew that I should go ahead and pull the trigger. I’d seen it before and I think the seller had wanted in the $40 range for it. When it was marked down, I knew I had to go for it. It’s now the oldest football card that I have.
The National Chicle set is one of, if not the, most iconic football sets. From Beckett.com: “The 1935 National Chicle set was the first nationally distributed bubble gum set dedicated exclusively to football players. The cards measure 2 3/8″ by 2 7/8”. Card numbers 25 to 36 are more difficult to obtain than other cards in this set. The Knute Rockne and Bronko Nagurski cards are two of the most valuable football cards in existence. The set features NFL players except for the Rockne card. There are variations on the backs of each of the first series (1-24) cards with respect to the size of Eddie Casey’s facsimile signature. The variation of Casey’s name printed in larger letters appears to be in shorter supply and that larger name is the only version appearing on the backs of the high series (25-36) cards. This leads us to believe that the first series large name variations were inserted into high series packs. Please note that many different reprints of these cards exist (particularly Rockne and Nagurski) so caution should be taken before paying a large sum for a card. The original cards were printed with blue ink on the back not green. Some reprints feature the word “reprint” on the front or back while others do not. A close look at the dot pattern on the front of the card is a tell tale sign of a reprint card. The originals do not show a dot pattern under magnification.”
I know that it will come back at the lowest grade, but I will be submitting this one to SGC. My submissions will likely be in waves, so not sure when it will happen. It’s going to look great slabbed in their holder.
I ended up picking up a few other vintage football cards and will post them in the future. This one deserved it’s own post, in my opinion.
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