1934 and 1935 Diamond Matchbooks

At the recent Valley Forge baseball card show, I added nine different matchbooks to my collection, not exactly knowing what I was adding.  The matchbooks seemed extremely reasonably priced, and I hadn't seen anything like this before, so I was intrigued.  I went through the dealer's box labeled "1930s Matchbooks" and pulled out every Phillie I could find.  (As an aside, it was during my search that I finally met fellow collector Steve F. and his son Sam.)


It turns out the matchbooks I bought come from two different sets - a 200-matchbook set called the 1934 Diamond Matchbook - Silver Border set and a smaller 24-matchbook set called the 1935 Diamond Matchbook - Black Border set.  I found this listing in the Standard Catalog of Vintage Baseball Cards, and I thought I'd list the description of the set verbatim here:

During much of the Great Depression, the hobby of matchbook collecting swept the country.  Generally selling at two for a penny, the matchbooks began to feature photos and artwork to attract buyers.  In the late 1930s, several series of sports subjects were issued by Diamond Match Co. of New York City.  The first issue was a set of 200 baseball players known to collectors as "silver border" for the color of the photo frame on the approximately 1 1/2" x 4 1/8" (open) matchbooks. 

Player portrait or posed photos are printed in sepia on front, and can be found bordered in either red, green, blue or orange (although it is unclear whether all players can actually be found in the red version), theoretically creating an 800-piece color variation set.  The player's name and team are printed on the "saddle" and there is a career summary on back, along with a design of glove, ball and bats.  Matchbooks are commonly collected with the matches removed and the striker at the back-bottom intact.  Pieces without the striker are valued at 50 percent of these listed prices.

Given that last part, my matchbooks would be valued less than those with the striker intact, but I'm still happy to have them in my collection.  It looks as if there are 11 Phillies matchbooks in the set, so I'm missing four of them for a complete team set.

From the 1935 Diamond Matchbooks set, I added the two shown here and I need two more to complete the team set.  Chuck Klein is shown wearing a Cubs uniform, and the online databases I checked list this as a Cubs card.  However, I'm classifying it as a Phillies card given that's the team listed.

Continuing a Tradition

1933 Goudey #21

I spent a lot of time over the holiday break discussing family traditions with my five-year-old son, Doug.  He loves hearing about the Christmas traditions I shared with my parents and my sister while I was growing up, and we often talk about how our little family is starting its own Christmas traditions.  After he fully understood the meaning of the word, he informed me that, "Traditions make me happy."

One of the Christmas traditions that always made me happy was the annual "Santa Brings Way Too Many Awesome Baseball Cards to Jim" tradition.  As a younger lad, I'd attend baseball card shows throughout the year with my Dad and he would always manage to sneak off and make a few secret purchases that would wind up under the tree on Christmas morning.  He'd also procure cards via mail order or, in more recent years, he'd scour eBay for cards for my collection.  He and my Mom would spend all year squirreling away cards in order to make the annual "Santa Brings Way Too Many Awesome Baseball Cards to Jim" tradition possible.

My Dad had been sick over the past few Christmases, so this tradition quietly faded over the past few years.  He passed away in October after a long, courageous battle.

1949 Bowman #30

My Mom, a reader of this here very blog, decided that some traditions should continue.  So, without me knowing it, she familiarized herself with my wantlists and she started making a few calls.  With the help of Kit Young, Dean's Cards and Dave's Vintage Cards, and with my vintage Phillies wantlists and 1971 Topps list in hand, she went to work.

You can imagine my shock and surprise this Christmas when I unwrapped a shoebox from my Mom and opened it to find a few dozen individually wrapped items with the exact dimensions of what must be baseball cards in top-loaders.  I spent the next half hour unwrapping each treasure only to find several 1971 Topps cards that I needed for my set and a wonderful collection of vintage Phillies cards spanning from 1933 to 1955.

The two cards featured here were the oldest cards in the lot, and I'm going to feature the rest of the cards in posts spread throughout the next few weeks.  My Mom told me she actually had fun tracking down these cards and I'm certainly extremely grateful for the continuation of the "Santa Brings Way Too Many Awesome Baseball Cards to Jim" tradition.

Dad would be proud of her.  Traditions make me happy.