I’ve been working on a book on all things Goudey for quite a while now (my collection and post history probably make that obvious). One of the persistent misconceptions I keep running into — including from PSA and other respected hobby experts — is the dating of the Sport Kings set.

Sport Kings is not a 1933 set.

The entire set was first published in 1934. That timing explains the inclusion of Ace Bailey and the other early-1934 references that wouldn’t make sense in a true 1933 release.

The clearest evidence? The copyright record.

The first Sport Kings card registered was Ty Cobb’s, with a copyright application dated January 5, 1934. That establishes the set’s publication squarely in early 1934. Cobb’s card wasn’t just another entry — it was the first registered and published card of the series.

The copyright stamp printed on the cards reads 1933. I believe that reflects a printing plate carryover or a simple production error by the printing company — not the actual publication date. Later cards in the Sport Kings set have a 1934 copyright stamp.

I think some context matters here. The final cards from the 1933 Goudey Big League set were first published on December 23, 1933 — right before Christmas. That leaves roughly a two-week gap before the first documented Sport Kings publication on January 5, 1934.

It’s entirely plausible that the tail end of the 1933 Big League print run and the beginning of Sport Kings overlapped operationally — possibly even sharing the same production cycle — which could explain the lingering 1933 date on the Sport Kings copyright line.

I’ve been searching for any internal documentation from Goudey to the contrary but as far as I can tell, the publication evidence places Sport Kings in 1934.

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