1937 R23 "Big Little Book Series" Collection (21)

Sold For:

$2,880

Year:

1937

Auction:

2021 Spring

Lot #:

3170

Category:

Non-Sports Cards/Sheets/Card Artwork

Collection of twenty-one different medium- to lower-grade 1937 R23 "Big Little Book Series" trading cards. Seven different characters are featured in 32-card subsets in this rare 1930s issue. The collection consists of the following cards organized by character subsets: 1) Buck Jones (2 cards): #186 (Vg) and 188 (Pr-Fr). 2) Dan Dunn (1 card): #201 (Pr-Fr due to partially erased pencil on surface). 3) Dick Tracy (5 cards): #57 (Fr), 58 (Gd), 61(Pr), 62 (Pr-Fr), and 63 (Gd). 4) Flash Gordon (4 cards): #5 (Pr), 26 (Pr), 27 (Vg+), and 31 (Vg+). 5) G-Man (2 cards): #150 (Fr) and 155(Fr). 6) Popeye (3 cards): #65 (Vg), 67 (Gd), and 87 (Pr). 7) Tom Mix (4 cards): #105 (Fr), 112 (Pr), 118 (Pr), and 119 (Fr). The corners of Big Little Book Series cards are notoriously susceptible to wear. Corner wear is a common characteristic of surviving cards, both due to the stock on which the cards are printed, and their original method of issue in perforated uncut strips that had to be separated by hand. The reverse of each card features an elaborate "chapter" of the story each card subset tells. While it is certain that there are a total of 224 cards in the set, we have never seen or heard of the assembly of a complete set, and it is possible that a complete set has never been assembled. When The Sport Americana Price Guide to Non-Sports Cards was last published in 1993, many cards in the set had still not been located to list the captions for each card in the set checklist. The "Big Little Book Series" cards are among the rarest and most desirable of all 1930s trading cards. Total: 21 cards. Reserve $200. Estimate (open).