Friday, September 1, 2017

First Good Year Blimp Trading Card - 1932 German Garbaty "Die Eroberung Der Lift" Set

The German card market has a wealth of cards that seem fairly undiscovered on the other side of the Atlantic.  This set is one of them in the fact that it contains the earliest known Good Year Blimp Card...the "Pilgrim."  While the Pilgrim wasn't the first blimp built by Good Year, it was the first to have the words Good Year printed on the side.  This 1932 German "Die Eroberung Der Lift" (The Conquest of the Air) set was the first to capture the iconic Good Year Blimp image on a card.  In fact, the only other cards I can find of the early Good Year blimps are postcards.  This set was made to collect and paste into an album which was typical of the German tobacco sets of this era.  Surprisingly, this small lot of cards I won at auction survived this pasting fate.  Köberich catalogues this set as the 20703-5 and it chronicles the history of human flight over 234 cards from mechanical wings on humans to passenger aircraft and blimps.  Each card measures approximately 2 7/17" x 1 9/16".


Posted by at
Labels: , ,

10 comments:

  1. Billy KingsleySeptember 1, 2017 at 9:10 AM

    Wow, I love it! I've never been on an airplane, it's a major phobia of mine...but I would go for a ride in the Goodyear Blimp if I could!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. SumoMenkoManSeptember 2, 2017 at 11:51 AM

      Wow!, I love flying so can't imagine not doing it, but I've never been in a blimp. I'd do it in a heartbeat too.

      Delete
  2. RAZSeptember 1, 2017 at 11:22 AM

    That's a really neat set. I love the illustrations.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. SumoMenkoManSeptember 2, 2017 at 11:52 AM

      This set has some good illustrations for sure. Back when people had to do it by hand...no computers.

      Delete
  3. AnonymousSeptember 1, 2017 at 5:23 PM

    Not every day you see a rookie card for a blimp... Those are very nice cards, I'll have to keep an eye out for my own copies.

    BTW, if my high school German isn't failing me, the German word for air is "Luft".

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. SumoMenkoManSeptember 2, 2017 at 11:53 AM

      You got me....typo. It should say Luft. German hasn't failed you....I wish I would have taken it in high school. Hopefully I can snag a copy that is in better condition at some point.

      Delete
  4. FujiSeptember 1, 2017 at 11:12 PM

    That blimp is sweet! Had no idea how many cool sets were produced in Germany. Gotta imagine a lot of countries around the world have their own form of cardboard hidden treasures.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. SumoMenkoManSeptember 2, 2017 at 11:54 AM

      Thanks. Germany has a ton of sets that aren't checklisted....they are known and catalogued at the set level, but the individual cards aren't documented. I am excited to see what other goodies lie within.

      Delete
  5. SeanSeptember 6, 2017 at 12:03 AM

    Those are great. I collect a lot of British tobacco sets from the 1910s-1930s which feature the early days of flight and am always amazed at the history that is there (lots of airships and biplanes during the era of airships and biplanes) for crazy low prices (compared to baseball cards from the same era at least)! Never seen a Good Year Blimp card before though, that is a cool find!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. SumoMenkoManSeptember 6, 2017 at 12:48 PM

      Thanks! It seems like there is a good handful of sets that focus on the history of flight.

      Delete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)