HUGE NEW SPORTS CARD FIND! 1930 Whiz Bang Babe Ruth and Jimmie Foxx

HUGE NEW SPORTS CARD FIND! 1930 Whiz Bang Babe Ruth and Jimmie Foxx Nearly a decade ago there was a major find of unopened material in an old candy. Among this huge find was a box of Whiz Bang cards. This display box for Whiz-Bang Chewing Gum, issued by the Frank H. Fleer Corporation of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is remarkable for its inclusion of an at the time unknown card set featuring notable Major League stars and Hollywood celebrities. The premium cards, which are circular in design (each 3 inches in diameter) with four triangular protrusions, feature portrait images of each subject with his name printed along the base (along with team or movie studio affiliation in most cases). A spiral pattern is printed on the reverse. Color variations exist for most of the cards (orange, yellow, or green borders). As noted on the counter display insert, some of these individual gum sticks are white, and if selected by the customer it would entitle him or her to a free boomerang flyer. Also included in the box are a quantity of colored strings, which appear to have a function related to the flyer. While we cannot state with certainty, it appears that the string was used in some manner to launch the boomerang flyer. Each card has two very tiny factory-punched holes in the center, and the string was most likely threaded through the holes in a manner that would then help either propel or twirl the card in the air. A total of eighty-three premium cards were found housed in the box, representing sixteen different stars (believed to be a complete set at the time), were included in the box. The baseball players located in this find were three HOF’s Lefty Grove, Gabby Hartnett, and Goose Goslin. Before the find, the set had never been cataloged before. They were completely new to the collecting world. After the find it was believed to be complete set at 16 cards. The number of cards for each subject is noted in parentheses that were found in the 2009 find. The find included the following: Warner Baxter (4), Ed Brendel (1), Joe E. Brown (2), Gary Cooper (12), Hoot Gibson (1), Goose Goslin (5), Lefty Grove (6), Gabby Hartnett (4), Buck Jones (9), Tom Keen (1), Ken Maynard (7), Wallace McDonald (12), Jack Oakie (6), George O’Brien (4), Chief Thunderbird (4), and Ted Wells (5). At the time you had to wonder if there were more baseball players in the set. I mean how could you have a set from this era without players like Ruth and Gehrig. Well, nearly a decade later we have found the answer. There are more. Including the one and only Babe Ruth and fellow HOF’R Jimmie Fox. A sports card dealer based in Florida had found an incredible piece of history when acquiring a collection and had them sitting on a table for sale at a sports card show. That’s right, nearly a decade late they were sitting on the floor of a sports cards show. Who says you can’t find anything at sports cards shows today!! Truly an incredible piece of history.

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