Description

The 1932 U.S. Caramel set is one of the hobby’s most sought after and rarest pre-war sets.  The 32-card set features mainly baseball players but also includes a handful of boxers and golfers. Although long referenced as a 1932 issue, subsequent research indicates it likely became available in 1933 (although there are hints it could’ve been as late as 1934).  The Ty Cobb, Lou Gehrig and Babe Ruth cards (last in the set) are big ticket items today.

It’s also notable that a complete set was redeemable for a prize.  For sending in one complete set collectors would receive a baseball (and their cards back, which were stamped “cancelled”) and for three complete sets one could receive a “Fielder’s Glove”.  The catch however like many redemption offers in the card world, is that there was one extremely short-printed card that made it almost impossible to actually complete a set and claim a prize.  In this case the card is for infielder, Freddy Lindstrom.  It is so rare that fewer than five examples are known. The set was also only available in the Boston area, and apparently the cards were exposed to the caramel in the packaging making clean high-grade cards very difficult to find today.

Add it all up and it’s easy to see why this set ranks among the top dogs of the hobby.

Offered here is card #21, Hall of Fame outfielder, Chuck Klein.  For a five-year period between 1929 and 1933 Klein was among the elite hitters in the game.  He benefitted from playing home games at the Baker Bowl in Philadelphia, which featured some hitter friendly quirks (280′ to RF, 300′ right center, 408 dead center, and 341 LF).  In all three triple crown categories from 1929 to 1933, he finished in the top 5 all but once (in 1929 he was 8th in batting average with a .356 mark).  In 1933 he finally did win the NL triple crown.  He was then traded to Chicago and his numbers dipped, but during this high-offense period he was in fact, elite.  He won the MVP in 1932 and was runner-up in 1931 and 1933.  He ended his career with a lifetime .320 average, with 2,076 hits, 300 home runs and 1,201 RBI.

Graded 4 VG-EX by PSA, this is 1 of 8, with 39 higher among only 67 graded by PSA.

*click on images to view hi-rez