1933 R300 George C. Miller Set and Checklist
‘It’s In The Details’
Title | R300 George C. Miller |
Year | 1933 |
Size | 2 3/8″ x 2 7/8″ |
Images | Color |
Type | Candy/Gum |
Number in Set |
32 |
R300 George C. Miller Overview
The 1933 R300 George C. Miller set is a relatively scarce issue. Despite having only 32 cards in the entire set, it isn’t easy to complete.
Card fronts have a colored image with no text or player identification. Backs identify the player and have a complete checklist, which can be found below.
There are plenty of big names in the set but the two that jump out to you the most are two that aren’t there – Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig. Both appeared in the 1933 Goudey set (more than once with a total of six cards between them) and their presence here would have boosted an otherwise solid lineup of stars.
The cards could be sent in to the company to redeem for prizes. Upon sending the prizes back, the company would also give the collector back his/her card, but in a trimmed fashion or with holes in it to indicate it had already been redeemed. Several different types of cancellations seem to exist — cards with the bottom trimmed, diamond-shaped holes, circular-punched holes, or the back includes the word cancelled or is crossed out.
Back Variations
Speaking of backs, two slightly different versions exist. The variations are extremely minor, however. The easiest way to tell the two apart is to look at the last line of the promotion mention (more on that in a second) below. Type 1 cards end the sentence with a good amount of space to spare. Type 2 cards have that line of text extend all the way to the end to match up with the lines above it.
If you’re dealing with a card that was cut off at the bottom, don’t fear. In Type 1, a player’s batting/throwing orientation (left or right-handed) was spelled out. In Type 2, it was only abbreviated.
Two spelling errors were also fixed in the second variation. Jimmie Foxx (spelled ‘Fox’ in Type 1) and Chuck Klein (‘Klien’ in Type 1) were both fixed. Each of those players would go on to become Hall of Famers their names were misspelled is even more embarrassing than it would be if they were nobodies.
Ivy Andrews Shortprint
Typically when companies offered a prize redemption for a complete set, they would shortprint one of the cards. In this case, that card was Paul “Ivy” Andrews.
As population reports show, his is the least graded card in the set with only a handful of known examples that have not been redeemed. Even redeemed copies of it are not plentiful. While population reports suggest there are six such copies, the actual number is believed to be fewer as cards may have been resubmitted more than once for grading.
The Andrews shown here is a canceled version with the bottom trimmed off.
An unredeemed Andrews card sold in a 2020 auction for $9,000.
R300 George C. Miller Checklist
- Dale Alexander
- Paul Andrews
- Earl Averill
- Dick Bartell
- Wally Berger
- Jim Bottomley
- Joe Cronin
- Dizzy Dean
- Bill Dickey
- Jimmy Dykes
- Wes Ferrell
- Jimmie Foxx
- Frankie Frisch
- Charlie Gehringer
- Goose Goslin
- Charlie Grimm
- Lefty Grove
- Chick Hafey
- Ray Hayworth
- Chuck Klein
- Rabbit Maranville
- Oscar Melillo
- Lefty O’Doul
- Mel Ott
- Carl Reynolds
- Red Ruffing
- Al Simmons
- Joe Stripp
- Bill Terry
- Lloyd Waner
- Paul Waner
- Lon Warneke
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