The 1930s actually saw a rise in trading card releases, counterintuitive to the Great Depression that was ravaging the world. Paper products were cheap, and the prevailing theory seems to have been, among card producers, that "anything to entice the customer to buy from us instead of the competition!"
1930
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| 1930 Godfrey Phillips Evolution of the British Navy |
1931
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| 1931 Ogden's Motor Races |
1932
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| 1932 Wills Homeland Events |
1933
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| 1933 Goudey Sport Kings |
1934
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| 1934 Player's Cricketers |
1935
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| 1935 Player Sea Fishes |
1936
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| 1936 Heinz Famous Aviators |
1937
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| 1937 Chuchman's Wonderful Railway Travel |
1938
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| 1938 Horrors of War |
1939
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| 1939 Churchman's Kings of Speed |
The 1930s are, finally, the first decade where every year is represented in my collection. Sports make the first appearance in the project, with 1 racing set, two multi-sport sets (1933 & 1939) and one Cricket set. Horrors of War is one of the most important non-sports sets ever produced, while the 1933 Sport Kings set includes the first true basketball cards, and Kings of Speed includes the first mainstream card of Jesse Owens. Something of note in this project is that, up to this point, almost every card represented is British. That would change in the following decade, as WWII raged on and changed the landscape of the hobby presumably forever...
Nice, love the variety. I would love to live in the UK and meet up with all the old British card collectors. I bet they are a hoot to hang out with and chat cards.
ReplyDeleteThere's so many British sets I still have not discovered yet. I wonder if they are common over there...a British card show would be great.
DeleteI like this series a lot.
ReplyDeleteThank you. It was fun to create and discover exactly how well I'm pushing my collection back in time.
DeleteThe nice thing about the 30's too, was that some non-tobacco based cards started showing up, the number of which would only increase going forward of course.
ReplyDeleteYes indeed. I touch on that more in the 1940s post.
DeleteThe 1933 Goudey Sport Kings is one of my favorite sets. I'll have to look up the Jesse Owens cards you mentioned to see if I could afford a copy. And I've wanted a few of those Horrors of War cards since I first learned about them in the 90's.
ReplyDeleteGood luck on the Jesse Owens! It's the key card of the set. The Horrors of War can be found for under $10 with a little bit of effort. I have five or six now and haven't paid more than $5 for any of them.
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