R32/R33 Gum Inc Comic Gum Card and Wrapper

This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 6/28/2020

The R32/R33 Gum Inc Comic Gum card and wrapper sets are interesting sets cataloged in the ACC by Burdick and others. The The R32 set is a group of cards believed to be (66) in total that were actually the outside box designs for the R33 Wrapper-wrapped gum from the inside of the packages. Non-sport.com pictures a complete box in the R32 entry and it becomes obvious that the cards that are on the outside of the box were meant to be trimmed from the box top.

The cards on the packaging feature the antics of Aspirina and Exit--two stereotypically drawn African-American children. Little is known about the pair as Google searches do not yield an ongoing comic concern with those characters, so it's entirely likely that the characters were created for the Comic Gum Product. The cards on the box pose a question which is then answered on a matching wrapper with an additional callout balloon with the answer.

It becomes apparent that many of the gum cards from the R32 set, once trimmed from the box would have designed condition issues including a heavy fold in the center where the card was partially on two different sides and folden across a seam or have some issue with trimming as some of the cards become the edge of the box and look as if they are incomplete. The full box, however, does have three full, clean cards across the top of the box in the center that could be cut cleanly from the box without any creasing or missing pieces. With the scarcity of the issue, it is unknown if there are multiple boxes in the series or if the artwork is affixed to the boxes in different manners which could allow for all (66) cards to be collected as full cards or not. The cards measure approximately 2-3/8" wide by 3-15/16" high with some variation in size for the hand-cutting required to create the cards.

The wrappers number (66) in total and answer the questions posed on the card box cards. The wrappers measure 3-5/8" wide by 5" high. The wrapper width allows for generally at least a single full pane answer of one of the box card questions with parts of a couple other panes on the left or right for answers to other box cards. The copyright from the issue is 1934 making it likely the earliest issue from the prolific gum card issuing company.

This lot of two items includes a single R32 card cut from a Comic Gum box with the actual corresponding wrapper from the inside of the box. Each item individually are infinitely rare and to have a matched pair of both the gum card and the corresponding answer wrapper is an unlikely event. The gum card has a characteristic fold in the center, having been cut from a part of the box that wrapped two different sides and has some light creasing on the card as well. The wrapper is in lower grade but also infinitely difficult to find with heavy creasing from obviously being crumpled up at some point. Many of the most advanced type card collections extant are missing subjects from these two sets and this lot offers a unique opportunity to mark off two cards from an ACC Type Card collection for the early "R" issues in one shot.