Perturbing Premiums

As many of you in the card collecting community might know, Saturday was Upper Deck's annual National Hockey Card Day.  In order to celebrate their exclusive license with the NHL and drum up interest in their rink-based products, UD created a special checklist of cards and gave away free packs of those promos to customers at card shops across the United States and our neighbors to the north.  This is the third year that this holiday has been on the calendar and it's an event that's been circled on mine since year one.  Accordingly, I made sure to forgo sleeping in that morning so that I could get to my nearest card shop shortly after opening. After all, I didn't want to miss out on my free pack of cards, especially with Blackhawks hotshot, Alex DeBrincat, included as a potential pull.

Unfortunately, things did not work out as planned.

Normally, I go to a different shop on Hockey Card Day; but, with a full slate of non-hobby activities already on the schedule for the day, I decided to stay a little more local.  Big mistake.  You see, the proprietor of this particular store did not appear to understand the promotion and was adamant that these packs were to be handed out only to those who purchased hockey product (of which, he stocks nothing new, just random singles, btw).  After I politely pointed out the true parameters of the promo, which were notated on the poster he had posted in his front window, he stared at me, in complete silence, for what had to be at least thirty seconds. If looks could kill, then I'd be six feet under right now. At that point, I felt weird about the whole thing and wanted nothing more than to just leave.

But, then something on the counter caught my attention.

At first, I was just grateful for something to break up the awkward staring contest. Then, I realized what it was that I was flipping through and my jaw nearly dropped through the glass counter.  Good thing it didn't though because breaking the man's property might have been the only way to make him resent me more than he already did.

Sitting right out in the open, on the counter, was a small stack of cards from the 1930's (in top-loaders, mind you), like that was normal or something. And the price on these unexpected, super-vintage gems?  One buck a piece...  Yup, for the price of a pack of Opening Day, you could take home an eighty-year old piece of baseball history!  Surely this had to be some sort of mistake.

Despite my misgivings about the initial venture, this was simply not a deal that I could possibly pass up.  I grabbed two of the half dozen or so that were available, including the Ethan Allen that you see above.  Allen might be depicted in a Philadelphia Phillies uniform, assisting a young boy with his batting form (maybe his son?), but he'll always be a Chicago Cub to me - he played half a season with the club in 1936.  For a measly buck, I'm more than happy to include a career contemporary card to my CATRC binder.

The card, by the way, is a Type I 1936 Goudey Wide Pen Premium. These oddballs were made up of  3¼" by 5½" black & white photos printed on thin paper (comparable to an index card), with blank backs.  Also, they are referred to as "wide pens" because of the thick script which declares the depicted subjects name on the front.  This latter distinction is important, as we'll see in a minute.

Along with Ethan Allen, I purchased what is technically a Reds card.  The script on the bottom is quite tough to make out - it reads, " Lombardi says 'Ugh.' Reds vs. Cubs.  The Lombardi being referred to is not the legendary football coach, rather it is the Hall of Fame catcher, Ernie.  Maybe it's the Chicago homer in me, but the setting of this Chicle card is obviously Wrigley Field and an unidentified North Sider is coming home to score as Lombardi stares off in disgust.

I cannot stop obsessing over who the mystery Cubs runner could be.  There's not much information or really any clues to be found in the background, other than the fact that it's a Cubs/Reds game from earlier than 1936.  Heck, the man in question's face is even obscured by shadow.  However, what if it's an obscure Cubbie that lacks more traditional cardboard rep and this is my only shot to land them for my CATRC...  with that in mind, I couldn't risk leaving this one behind. 

Speaking of "behind," it's a little bit easier to understand why these antiques were so cheap when we look at Ernie's backside (phrasing):

Clearly, these were pasted (and taped) into someone's photo album or scrapbook, way back when.  That's understandable because they more like photographs than traditional baseball cards. Nevertheless, I think a buck apiece is still a steal of a deal!

Although it is of the same dimensions, stock, and style, this Lombardi card is not from the same checklist as Ethan Allen.  Ernie hails from another gum company premium release that dates back to 1936 - National Chicle Fine Pen Premiums.  The key difference between these blank-backed, in-store premiums is the breadth of the stroke used in the caption on the front.  With as difficult as it was to make out said caption on the front of Lombardi, you can see why this set has earned the moniker of "fine pens."  Otherwise, these two sets are almost completely identical!

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In the end, while I eventually ended up with purchase-incentive premiums, they were certainly not the ones that I had expected to find that morning.  After our weird encounter before, I was awfully hesitant to bring these artifacts up to the cash register, but there was no way that I was going to leave them behind.  Without any chit-chat, the store owner rang me up and I shot out of there like a canon. I should probably mention that he did relent and begrudgingly let me take a pack of the National Hockey Day cards; that said, after how bizarrely that all went down, I don't think I'll be revisiting that store for a while. 

Did anyone else partake in this cardboard holiday?  If so, was the experience a pleasant one or did you too have to jump through hoops with a perturbed proprietor giving you the death stare?  I hope it's the former, but I'm curious to know if I'm the only one who's experienced the latter?

And I didn't even pull DeBrincat from my hard-earned, free pack either.  But, you know what, I think the premiums that I ended up with are much cooler anyway!