Beautiful 1933 World Wide Gum cards of Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig have proudly been purchased by Just Collect. These legendary cards have travelled the world along side a WWII bomber pilot!
One of the nicest Babe Ruth cards we've ever laid eyes on has been discovered and purchased by Just Collect. A collection with TWO Ruth cards and a Lou Gehrig card came to us by way of Canada, and the story behind the cards is incredible!
Born in Southern Ontario in the 1920's, John's father was a WWII bomber pilot in the Airforce. Like we all did, John's father collected sports cards as a kid. As he grew older, the father travelled and lived across both Canada and Europe. By the mid-1960's, the cards were placed in the bottom of a steamer trunk (how cool is this?!) and ventured with John's dad where he lived.
In the 1980's, the cards were given to John. At that point, John had NEVER seen the cards before! Not being a card collector, he had no idea of their value. The cards were then placed into John's own steamer trunk!
By the early 2000's, John relocated to a remote area in British Columbia - so remote that that the nearest traffic light is 300 miles away!
These cards have been sitting in the bottom of trunks for over 60 years, and most recently in a very remote area of Canada. To see the cards in such splendid condition is unbelievable. Cards in the bottom of a trunk isn't quite how we recommend to safely store your cards, but what a tale!
Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig are two of the greatest baseball players in the history of the game. Ruth is arguably the most famous athlete to have ever lived! Between 1914 and 1935, Ruth crushed 714 career home runs - more than double of any player by the time he retired. Before Ruth, the home run King was Roger Connor with 137 home runs. In some years, Ruth hit more home runs himself than some entire teams did. Not to be outdone, Gehrig, Ruth's teammate on the New York Yankees, put up giant numbers himself on the field. A three-time home run champ himself, Gehrig led the league in batting average, home runs, and RBI in 1934. Ruth won the World Series seven times and Gehrig six times in their illustrious careers.
1933 World Wide Gum cards nearly mirror 1933 Goudey cards. World Wide Gum is the Canadian counterpart to the US Goudey company. You may recall opening O-Pee-Chee cards from Canada which look just like Topps cards.
The set size of World Wide Gum is smaller, having fewer cards than Goudey released in 1933. While there aren't as many cards, the stars of baseball are in World Wide Gum including Ruth and Gehrig.
Below are cards #93 (red Babe Ruth), #80 (Ruth batting), and #55 (Gehrig). You can see Babe's real name, George! Sounds weird calling him George instead of Babe, right? There is a crease in the middle of card 80, just below Babe's waist. This card is still quite valuable despite the crease! When grading your cards, condition is VERY important in correlation to value. The crease down the middle does alter the value a great deal, however, this is a vintage Babe Ruth card which still carries a high dollar amount. Card 93, the red Ruth, is gorgeous. The corners - the centering - the color. Just one of the prettiest Babe Ruth cards. The blue background on the Gehrig card looks as if this card was freshly pulled from a pack of gum yesterday.
PSA, one of the top grading companies, has only graded 82 of the red Ruth cards from this set! Just 114 of the Ruth batting cards have been graded by PSA, and 92 of the Gehrig cards have ever been graded. You can see the population report of all of the 1933 World Wide Gum cards here.
Here is a slide show of of these jaw-dropping cards:
Lisa, a long time friend of John, were gifted these cards by him a while ago. He mentioned to her that these cards have great value. John who is now 71 years old, is facing some health issues and Lisa realized she can use these cards as a way to help him with his medical bills. Lisa asked her friend Jacky to help her find someone or a company to buy these cards. Jacky, searched Google and found us here at Just Collect. Lisa filled out our
Lisa shipped the cards to us here at Just Collect, using our full-insured, FedEx Express International account. We offer many ways to evaluate and purchase your collections. Aside from shipping, we can travel to you, meet at a card show or convention, or you can always visit the Just Collect office in-person.
After our free appraisal, we made Lisa a fair offer that she accepted. We then paid Lisa how she wanted to be paid. When you sell your collection to Just Collect, we can pay you with a company check, cash, or wire transfer.
So kind of you, Lisa, for helping your long time friend. We wish you and John the best! Thank you for choosing Just Collect to sell your cards to.
Just Collect is always buying vintage sports and non-sports cards from 1879 to 1979 as well as select modern cards. If you have a collection that you are considering selling, contact us today to discuss or get our industry-leading purchase offer. If you have a collection that you want appraised, please contact us and we would be happy to discuss your collection and help you understand the real cash value of your collection in the current marketplace. Check out the Just Collect Buy List.
We always offer a FREE APPRAISAL for your collection here at the Just Collect site. Just click here:
We offer may ways to evaluate your cards other than or using our website, too.
If you can make the trip here like the son from my hometown did for this collection- we can make a deal at the office. We once met a father-son duo that drove eight hours from Virginia to meet us to sell a Michael Jordan rookie card stored in Tupperware since 1986 - great read here.
We keep a LIST of card shows we'll be attending. Come stop by the Just Collect table and chat.
If you have a valuable collection and want us to come to you, we'll hop on the next plane out.
If you're near New York City and would like to meet in a public place, our owner, Leighton, would be happy to meet you; read all the information here.
If you choose to mail your cards for an appraisal, we will evaluate your cards for FREE still. If you choose not to sell the cards, we'll ship them back shipping fees paid by us! We can offer our FedEx account with 2-day shipping, fully insured, all covered by us. Simply contact the office to set up this option.
We've run into a wide range of people and collections over the last 25 years. Although Just Collect is known for buying vintage sports cards and especially vintage baseball cards, we are also extremely interested in buying non-sports cards, too!
Every collection and every collector is different and we treat EVERY collection with the respect and attention that we show for our own collections. We understand that many have put their heart and souls into building their collections. So when you're ready to sell, we understand the feelings that you're going through and will work with you to help you reach a decision that is a WIN/WIN, because if you're not happy, we're not happy.
Whether you have vintage cards or modern wax you want to sell, you can reach out to us any time!