1947 Signal Gasoline Set (UO11) and Checklist

Posted on December 21, 2016 by Pre-War Cards

‘It’s In The Details’

Title	Signal Gasoline (UO11)
Year	1947
Size	3 1/2″ x 5 1/2″
Images	Black and White
Type	Oil and Gasoline
Number in Set	89

1947 Signal Gasoline Set (UO11) Overview

1947 Signal Gasoline UO11 Maurice Van Robays Issued in 1947, this unique set featured cards of minor league baseball players from teams in the Pacific Coast League.

The cards have sort of a comic book feel to them. The fronts of these cards feature images of the players along with an assortment of supporting cartoon images. Backs include the player’s name and some biographical information as well as an advertisement for Signal Gasoline, which was termed the “Go Farther” gasoline.

In all, the set includes players from of the eight teams in the Pacific Coast League:

Hollywood Stars
Los Angeles Angels
Oakland Oaks
Sacramento Solons
Seattle Rainiers

The set is unique for several reasons. First, it is a minor league only release. Pictures on the cards are also not only cartoons but were drawn by former big league pitcher Al Demaree. Demaree was an artist for all sorts of sports-related images and also produced the Al Demaree R304 Die-Cuts set as well as the 1935 Schutter-Johnson R72 set.

These jumbo-sized cards are also quite large. At 3 1/2″ by 5 1/2″, they are postcard-sized and larger than many collectors realize.

Finally, this is one of the few gasoline card sets out there before the modern era of collecting began. It is categorized in the American Card Catalog as a gasoline/oil card as it was distributed by Signal Gasoline. Specifically, these cards are classified under the UO header — U for Miscellaneous cards and then O, signifying the oil and gasoline subset. Cards distributed by gas stations did eventually catch on but until later.

In addition, Signal Gasoline created a separate team set for only the Oakland Oaks in 1948, the following year.