C-Cards and V-Cards (Canadian Issues)

Introduction

While most Canadian pre-war cards were understandably hockey issues, there are some baseball cards, as listed here. Issues featuring Canadian baseball players are even more difficult to find. Many Canadian issues featured Major League Baseball players — despite the fact that major league baseball had not arrived to the country yet, as I covered in a separate article here.

C-Cards and V-Cards are Canadian issues. C-Cards represent cards produced by tobacco companies and the sole set in that category is the C46 Imperial issue – an intriguing set consisting of minor league players (some of which made it into the major leagues).

V-Cards are those produced by candy/gum companies and make up the bulk of the Canadian baseball issues. Like the U.S. products, these cards were distributed with all sorts of sweets, including chocolate, candy, and gum.

With demand for these cards not reaching the same popularity as their American counterparts did, these are generally rarer and more difficult to find. That hasn’t always equated to higher values, though. For example, the 1933 Canadian World Wide Gum cards (basically the equivalent of the Goudey issues) are much tougher to find than the U.S. cards. But to collectors, the 1933 Goudey cards are still more valuable.

Note that other, uncatalogued Canadian issues more closely related to food (ice cream, popcorn, etc.) are located in the F-Card section.

Sets

1940s Cracker Jack Sports (V410)	1925 Dominion Chocolate (V31)	1912 Imperial Tobacco (C46)
1930s Lowney’s Chocolates Just Kids (V49)	1923 Maple Crispette (V117)	1922 Neilson’s Chocolate (V61)
1933/1934 O-Pee-Chee / Canadian Butterfinger (V94)	1937 O-Pee-Chee (V300)	1924 Willard’s Champions (V122)
1923 Willard’s Chocolates (V100)	1922 William Paterson (V89)	1933 World Wide Gum (V353)
1934 World Wide Gum (V354)	1936 World Wide Gum (V355)	1937 World Wide Gum Wide Pen Photos (V352)
1939 World Wide Gum (V351)