1888 G&B Gum Set and Checklist (E223)

‘It’s In The Details’

Title E223 G&B Gum
Year 1888
Size 1″ x 2 1/8″
Images Sepia
Type Candy/Caramel
Number in Set
84

E223 G&B Gum Overview

E223 069 Greer.jpg

While most E cards didn’t surface until later, the 1888 E223 G&B Gum set was one of the earliest known baseball card issues. In fact, it is believed to be the first gum-related card set.

The G&B stood for Green and Blackwell Company.

Most candy and gum cards did not arrive until the 20th Century after the emergency of tobacco cards. However, this is one of the few from the 1800s.

The cards heavily resembled what tobacco cards looked like at the time with a sepia image of a player on the front along with his name and team. Backs of the cards were blank. Similar to the tobacco issues from the same time period such as the N172 Old Judge set, these cards are prone to fading and premiums exist for pictures that remain clear and sharp.

The cards featured both real photographs and drawings of players. As Love of the Game Auctions says, these are also similar to the N403 Yum Yum Tobacco cards produced that same year.

The set also includes one of the early few (if not ‘only’) known cards featuring Hall of Famer A.G. Spalding. Spalding would go on to become one of the founders of Spalding Sporting Goods. Spalding’s name is misspelled on the card as ‘Spaulding.’

The cards were likely packaged with G&B’s gum products as ‘Chewing Gum’ is printed on the bottom of some of the cards along with the G&B name.

E223 G&B Gum Checklist

A fully-confirmed G&B Gum checklist is not known. However, here are the cards known to have been graded by PSA and SGC according to their pop reports. Cards marked with an * are not in the pop reports but listed in other checklists.

A total of 69 different players are known and the Standard Catalog of Vintage Baseball Cards reports 15 variations. That would give us a known total of 84 cards.

  1. Cap Anson
  2. Fido Baldwin
  3. Lady Baldwin
  4. Sam Barkley
  5. Stephen Brady
  6. Dan Brouthers
  7. California Brown*
  8. Thomas Burns
  9. Charles Buffington
  10. Tom Burns*
  11. Bushong
  12. Bob Caruthers
  13. John Clarkson
  14. Jack Clements
  15. John Coleman
  16. Charlie Comiskey
  17. Roger Connor
  18. Con Daily
  19. Tom Deasley
  20. Jim Donahue
  21. Mike Dorgan
  22. Dude Esterbrook
  23. Buck Ewing
  24. Charlie Ferguson*
  25. Silver Flint
  26. Pud Galvin
  27. Charlie Getzein
  28. Jack Glasscock
  29. Kid Gleason
  30. Greer
  31. Frank Hankinson
  32. Ned Hanlon
  33. Pete Hotaling*
  34. Spud Johnson
  35. Tim Keefe
  36. King Kelly
  37. Gus Krock
  38. Latham
  39. Connie Mack
  40. Madden
  41. Mays
  42. McGinnis
  43. Doggie Miller
  44. James Mutrie
  45. Nick Nicol
  46. Tip O’Neill
  47. Jim O’Rourke
  48. Orr
  49. Fred Pfeffer
  50. Henry Porter
  51. Al Reache
  52. Danny Richardson
  53. Yank Robinson
  54. Chief Roseman*
  55. James Ryan
  56. Pop Smith
  57. Bill Sowders
  58. A.J. Spalding
  59. Marty Sullivan
  60. Billy Sunday
  61. Ezra Sutton
  62. Mike Tiernan
  63. Larry Twitchell
  64. Rip Van Haltren
  65. Von Der Ahe
  66. John Ward
  67. Mickey Welch
  68. G. Whitney
  69. Pete Wood

Follow Pre-War Cards on Twitter and also be sure to like our page on Facebook.