Auction #20 - June 2025
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 7/13/2025
The 1933 Goudey Indian series is one of the quintessential dozen or so nonsports sets issued from the 1880's to 1970's. It's one of the more widely collected sets due to the variety of ways it can be collected. Although the set is entitled "Indian Gum", it pictures not only Indians, but settlers and well known Western figures as well. Many of the cards picture headshots of a single Indian while others picture action scenes of a number of people in frontier life. Popular subjects in the set include well known figures like Sitting Bull and Pocahantas, Daniel Boone, Davie Crockett, Jim Bridger, Colonel Bowie and others.
The set was apparently issued in series with multiples of (24) cards and printed on sheets in a similar manner. The set numbers 216 different numbers with many of the numbers having associated varieties. Within the sets, the most noticeable varieties are differences in card backs. The card backs generally say "This is a series of XXX cards". The different series associated with the set on the backs are 24, 48, 96, 192, 264, 288 and 312. Different series are tougher than others and sometimes different cards within a series are tougher than other cards within that series. Although there are 216 different card numbers, a total of 432 different combinations can be found--some of which are very difficult and very expensive.
This complete set of (216) R73 Goudey Gum Indian Gum cards is largely in Good to EX condition with most cards in the set being in the VG/VGEX range. It's a uniform set and there's only a few really low grade cards in the lot. Key cards are as follows: #25 Geronimo (VGEX), #33 Pocahantas (VG/VGEX), #38 Sitting Bull (VGEX), #50 Daniel Boone (GVG), #52 Davy Crockett (VGEX), #55 George Custer (VGEX), #60 Buffalo Bill (VG) and #68 Kit Carson (VG).
All cards in the (25-48) run are red banners. There are no blue banner cards in that run. The breakdown by series includes the following: Series of 24 (None), Series of 48 (71 cards), Series of 96 (45 cards), Series of 192 (28 cards), Series of 216 (24 cards), Series of 264 (24 cards) Series of 288 (Zero cards) and Series of 312 (24 cards). There are no white background cards in the series of 312 cards. All in all, this is a nice set with a good number of very clean cards, a good number of lower middle grade cards and only a smaller group of really lower grade cards. All (216) cards have been scanned--front and back--and are presented in the fully downloadable PDF file attached to the auction.
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