1934 R313-A Gold Medal Foods - Joe Medwick

Very soon after the 1934 World Series, Gold Medal Foods issued a mail-in promotion with their Wheaties cereal product for photo-card premiums of players from the World Series teams. The set consisted of six players from the Detroit Tigers and six from the champion St. Louis Cardinals. The cards have a glossy sheen to them and are similar in size to a postcard.

In 2011 I was just starting to get back into collecting cards after being away from the hobby for 15 years. I hardly made any money at the time, so I made a $5 weekly budget for myself as a sort of game to see what was possible at that level. If I didn't get anything one week, I had $10 for the next. The neighborhood card shop had a bid-board for consigning cards and I was able to get some great cards from the 60s, 70s, and 80s. And then I got $50 for Christmas and thought I'd see what kind of deals could be found on ebay. I searched some old Cardinals legends just for kicks. Joe "Ducky" Medwick came to mind because he had a memorable nickname. I was surprised to find this Medwick card up for auction for about $9. I couldn't understand how an 80-year-old card of a Hall of Fame player could be so inexpensive. I did some quick research to see what the card was and if it was legitimate. It was legitimate as far as I could tell (but at the time I knew virtually nothing about pre-war baseball cards). But I noticed that the auction title had a spelling mistake, perhaps that was why it didn't have any action. I placed a bid an won it for $15 (for the condition that it is, $35 - $45 is probably the market value). I joined a vintage card forum and have been a low-budget vintage card collector ever since.

The Gold Medal Foods World Series set ended up being the perfect set for me to go after. It is a small set, it is of my two favorite teams, it contains 5 Hall of Famers, it is inexpensive, and it can take a long time to build. I think it took me seven years to find good quality examples at an affordable price. This Joe Medwick was the start of it. There is more to be said about this set, but I have 11 more cards to post, so I'll say more later.