1933-34 Goudey Napoleon Lajoie #106

The hole in the checklist

In 1933 the Goudey Gum Company of Boston put a baseball card in every penny pack of its Big League Chewing Gum. The cards were bigger than anything kids had collected before, 2 3/8 by 2 7/8 inches, printed on thicker stock with bright painted portraits and a biography on the back. The backs promised a 'series of 240.' Collectors who tried to finish it discovered that one number, 106, never turned up.

Goudey printed the 1933 set on ten press sheets of 24 cards each. Card 106 is not on the sheet where it should be. A hand-cut proof shows how the gap happened: Leo Durocher was first assigned number 106, and a single proof of his card with 106 on the back survives. Before final printing, Goudey pulled 106 off the sheet and put a second copy of its #144 Babe Ruth in its place, and Durocher's card was renumbered 147. That Durocher proof was owned by hobby pioneer Woody Gelman and later by Barry Halper, and it was sold with the Halper collection in 1999.

Whether the gap was deliberate is still argued. A collector writing for PSA believes Goudey omitted 106 on purpose so children would keep buying packs in search of it, a tactic he notes other confectioners of the era had used. A collector-historian who reconstructed the sheet changes reads it as a production decision driven by demand for Ruth. The sources do not settle the question.

Answering the mail

By 1934 enough collectors had written to Goudey's Boston office about the missing card that the company made one. It printed a Napoleon Lajoie card on the final sheet of its 1934 production, the high-number sheet, and mailed it to the people who had asked, along with a letter of apology. It was never sold in packs.

The card is a hybrid. The front looks like a 1934 Goudey, with slimmer name lettering and a sliding pose that one collector-historian matches to the 1934 card of Cliff Bolton. The back follows the 1933 design, carries the number 106 and the 'series of 240' footer, and adds a 1934 Goudey copyright line beneath it. The biography uses the quotation-mark style of 1934 backs.

Why Lajoie, a player who had retired after 1916, is a mystery. PSA's account calls it one; the collector-historian's theory is that the Lajoie art was first painted for Goudey's multi-sport Sport Kings set and was bumped from that set's #42 slot in favor of Carl Hubbell, the star of the 1933 World Series, leaving finished artwork that could fill the hole at 106. That is a reasoned argument, not a documented fact.

The way the card reached collectors shaped how it survives. Many were attached to the apology letter with a paper clip, which left impressions and sometimes spider-web wrinkles on the surface. But because none went through a pack or a child's pocket alongside a slab of gum, a larger share survive in high grade than for most 1933 cards.

The Frenchman

Napoleon Lajoie was born September 5, 1874, in Woonsocket, Rhode Island, the youngest of eight surviving children of French-Canadian parents. His father died when he was young, and Lajoie left school to work in a textile mill. He played semipro ball under the alias 'Sandy' because his parents disapproved, drove a horse-drawn taxi that earned him the local name 'Slugging Cabby,' and picked up the nickname 'Larry' from a teammate who could not pronounce Lajoie.

The Philadelphia Phillies bought him from Fall River of the New England League in August 1896, and he debuted on August 12. In 1901 he jumped to Connie Mack's Philadelphia Athletics in the new American League and hit .426 with 232 hits, 48 doubles, 14 home runs and 125 RBI, still the American League record for batting average. The figure was first recorded as .405 because of a transcription error not found until 1954. That season he was intentionally walked with the bases loaded.

A court fight over the reserve clause sent him to Cleveland in 1902. Fans there were so taken with him that, after a newspaper readers' poll, the club renamed itself the Naps for the 1903 season. He managed the team as well from 1905 to 1909, and called taking on the job the biggest mistake of his career.

In 1910 he and Ty Cobb fought for the batting title and a new Chalmers automobile. On the last day Lajoie went 8-for-8 in a doubleheader in St. Louis, several of the hits bunts dropped in front of a third baseman playing deep, and the league president declared Cobb the winner. Chalmers gave both men a car. Later research found Cobb's totals had been miscounted, and sources still disagree on who won; Baseball-Reference lists Lajoie at .383. On September 27, 1914, Lajoie doubled for his 3,000th hit, the third player to reach the mark after Cap Anson and Honus Wagner. He played his last major league game on August 26, 1916.

He was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1937 with 168 of 201 votes, ahead of Tris Speaker and Cy Young, and was inducted when the Hall opened on June 12, 1939. He died in Daytona Beach, Florida, on February 7, 1959. His career hit total is given as 3,243 by Baseball-Reference, 3,252 by Wikipedia and 3,242 by PSA.

Penny gum in the Depression

Goudey was founded in 1919 by Enos Gordon Goudey of Barrington Passage, Nova Scotia, a former employee of the Beemans gum company, who opened a factory in Boston. He sold the business in 1932, and on his retirement in 1933 William Wrigley Jr. called him the 'penny gum king of America.' Goudey was the first American company to put a baseball card with each piece of gum; cards had come with cigarettes and candy for years.

The timing mattered. A penny bought a picture card and a slab of gum at a moment when the country was in the depths of the Depression. One collector-historian, drawing on another researcher's work, says Goudey sold more gum cards in 1933 than in any other year, helped by the first All-Star Game and Chicago's Century of Progress exposition.

The 1933 set is rich in stars: four different Babe Ruth cards, with #144 double-printed and therefore found at twice the normal rate, three cards of Joe Cronin and two of Jimmie Foxx. It also included minor leaguers. Collectors often rank it with T206 and 1952 Topps as one of the hobby's 'Big Three' sets, and the Lajoie is the reason no one could finish it from packs.

Survivors and sales

PSA's population report for the card lists, from the top: nine PSA 9s, one PSA 8.5, eight PSA 8s and thirteen PSA 7s, down to seven PSA 1s and seven Authentic. No PSA 10 is recorded. A PSA 8 offered in July 2015 was described as one of seven at that grade with ten higher, so the count has moved only slightly in a decade.

The PSA 8 at the center of this entry is graded NM-MT. One PSA 8 sold in February 2019 for $127,904 including buyer's premium, against an estimate of $100,000 or more; the sale description notes good centering, which matters because the card sat in the far right column of its press sheet and about half of the copies seen have very narrow right borders. The same certificate had sold for $74,090 in November 2015. Other PSA 8s brought $43,880 in November 2010, $71,700 in July 2015 and $119,500 in April 2016.

PSA 9s show how far the market moved. One certificate sold for $103,137 in December 2012, $204,000 in February 2017 and $144,000 that November. Another brought $228,000 in November 2016, $192,000 in May 2020 and $384,000 in January 2022, the highest price in PSA's sales record for the card. PSA's sales record also lists a PSA 7 at $171,484, but under two conflicting dates.

How to know one

A genuine #106 pairs a 1934-style front with a 1933-style back: the number 106, the 'series of 240' line and a 1934 Goudey copyright beneath it. The front shows Lajoie in a slide with his name in slimmer lettering than the 1933 cards use.

Centering tends to run right, with a narrow right border, because of the card's position at the edge of the sheet. Paper-clip impressions from the mailing are common and are part of the card's history rather than a sign of a problem. A well-preserved surface with natural toning is what high-grade examples show.

The Durocher proof numbered 106 is a separate object, a single hand-cut card, and is not a Lajoie.

The numbers

Career (1896-1916)

21 seasons, 2,480 G, 3,243 H, 1,504 R, 657 2B, 163 3B, 82 HR, 1,599 RBI, 380 SB, .338 BA, .380 OBP, .466 SLG

1901 season (Philadelphia A's)

131 G, 145 R, 232 H, 48 2B, 14 3B, 14 HR, 125 RBI, .426 BA, .463 OBP, .643 SLG

1903 season (Cleveland)

125 G, 167 H, 41 2B, 93 RBI, .344 BA, .518 SLG. AL batting leader.

1904 season (Cleveland)

140 G, 208 H, 49 2B, 102 RBI, .376 BA, .546 SLG

1910 season (Cleveland)

159 G, 227 H, 51 2B, 76 RBI, .383 BA (Baseball-Reference), 304 TB. The batting title is disputed.

Final season (1916)

113 G, 105 H, .246 BA, age 41

Manager

Cleveland, 1905-1909

Hall of Fame

Elected 1937, 168 of 201 ballots

Timeline

1. Sep 5, 1874

   Napoleon Lajoie is born in Woonsocket, Rhode Island.

2. Aug 12, 1896

   Lajoie makes his major league debut for the Philadelphia Phillies.

3. 1901

   With the Philadelphia Athletics, he hits .426, still the American League record.

4. 1903

   Cleveland's club renames itself the Naps in his honor.

5. 1910

   Lajoie and Ty Cobb finish the disputed batting race; both receive a Chalmers automobile.

6. Sep 27, 1914

   Lajoie doubles for his 3,000th career hit.

7. Aug 26, 1916

   He plays his last major league game.

8. 1919

   Enos Gordon Goudey founds the Goudey Gum Company in Boston.

9. 1933

   Goudey issues its Big League Chewing Gum cards, a 'series of 240' with no card 106 in packs.

10. 1934

    Goudey prints a Lajoie card numbered 106 on its 1934 high-number sheet and mails it to collectors who wrote in.

11. 1937

    Lajoie is elected to the Hall of Fame with 168 of 201 votes.

12. Jun 12, 1939

    He is inducted as the Hall of Fame opens in Cooperstown.

13. Feb 7, 1959

    Lajoie dies in Daytona Beach, Florida.

14. 1962

    Goudey closes; most of its unreleased cards, printing plates and archives are thrown away in the 1960s, though some reach collectors.

15. 1999

    The hand-cut Durocher proof numbered 106 sells with the Barry Halper collection.

16. Feb 2019

    A PSA 8 sells at auction for $127,904.

17. Jan 28, 2022

    A PSA 9 sells for $384,000, the top price in PSA's sales record for the card.

The world in 1934

• Jan 30, 1934

  The Gold Reserve Act moves the Federal Reserve's gold to the Treasury.

• Feb 22, 1934

  Frank Capra's It Happened One Night is released.

• Mar 22, 1934

  The first Masters Tournament opens at Augusta National.

• May 11, 1934

  A two-day Dust Bowl storm strips topsoil from the Great Plains.

• Jul 22, 1934

  John Dillinger is shot and killed by FBI agents outside Chicago's Biograph Theater.

• Oct 9, 1934

  The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Detroit Tigers in the World Series, 4 games to 3.

• Oct 31, 1934

  Chicago's Century of Progress exposition closes.

• Nov 21, 1934

  Cole Porter's Anything Goes opens in New York.

Daily price data

FLOAT reprices this card every day from completed sales. Last updated November 12, 2026.

No completed sale at PSA 8 is on record yet. The same card at other grades:

Every grade and recorded sale for this card

Price record

A realized auction price is what a buyer actually paid on the date shown, including the buyer's premium where the sale reported it. It is the strongest kind of reference price, and it is a record of one sale of one object on one day, not a promise of what the next example will bring.

By reference price, 1933-34 Goudey Napoleon Lajoie #106 is number 19 of 100 in the trading cards entries of the FLOAT 100. 97 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (27 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• Card #106 was printed in 1934 but numbered into the 1933 set, and it went only to collectors who wrote to Goudey asking for it.
• A single proof of Leo Durocher with the number 106 on the back exists; Goudey swapped him out for a second Babe Ruth before the 1933 sheet was printed.
• Many copies were mailed clipped to an apology letter, and the paper clip left marks that collectors still see today.
• Lajoie was intentionally walked with the bases loaded in 1901, only the second major leaguer known to have been.
• His record .426 average in 1901 was first recorded as .405 because of a transcription error not caught until 1954.
• Cleveland's team was called the Naps after him from 1903 until he left.
• As a young semipro he played under the name 'Sandy' because his parents thought ballplayers were bums.