Popularity of 1932 U.S. Caramel Presidents Has a Lot of Room to Grow

The classic 1932 U.S. Caramel Presidents set is designated as R114 and was issued by the United States Caramel Company. This is easily one of the most popular sets for vintage nonsports collectors who prefer U.S. Presidents over other historical figures. The U.S. Caramel Co. also issued the “Famous Athletes” set of 32 cards (designated R328) that looks quite similar in art featuring mostly baseball players, but it also included some famous boxers and golfers of that era.

While the Presidents set is 30 cards by issue, the back of each card states that there are 31 cards and the prized William McKinley card was #31. McKinley’s card has less than 10 graded examples between PSA and SGC slabs combined. A lot of discussion is spent on the McKinley card solely because of scarcity and a recent $100,000+ sale.

The reality is that the set has 30 other presidents that are highly collectible starting with George Washington and ending with Franklin D. Roosevelt. Most collectors will never get a chance to see a McKinley card unless one comes up for sale in an auction. Considering the interest in vintage nonsports and the wide array of historic collectors, some collectors consider these cards “investments” in historical items with a chance of being much more popular and sought after in the years ahead.

PLEASE NOTE — Ogg’s Cards has a large number of these Presidential cards from the 1932 U.S. Caramel set in inventory. If you are looking to sell these or similar vintage sports/nonsports cards please reach out in an email to JONOGG@OGGSCARDS.COM so we can get something worked out. The images here are what are in inventory today.

The cards with red backgrounds are much more common than those with blue backgrounds, which also implies that the blue backgrounds sell at a premium (or multiple) versus the red backgrounds. Similar to the T206 and other key sets with errors or one-offs, the 1932 U.S. Caramels set of Presidents is considered to be complete at 30 cards because so few McKinley cards exist.

As of this publishing time only about 2,800 examples have been graded by the two leading graders — PSA had graded only 1,866 cards in total and SGC had graded just 934 examples of these cards. That’s it. The PSA set registry also shows 9 complete sets (or 90% complete), meaning that with other registry set builders there are at least more than 10% of the total cards graded are tied up in PSA sets.

A journey back into U.S. and economic history should make it quite clear as to why there are so few cards here. The early 1930s was not a time when Americans were blowing money left and right on cards. In fact, buying candy would have been considered a luxury item for many people at the time. Food for thought about 1932:

• The 1929 Crash had rapidly turned into the Great Depression.
• The unemployment rate was 20% to 25%.
• American workers who were out of a job had no real prospects of finding a job.
• Breadlines and food charities were common.
• Malnutrition was becoming more widespread.
• Banks had been failing for the better part of two years, often leaving depositors (bank customers) suddenly broke with no prospects of replacing their cash.

And… somehow a few card companies managed to still keep issuing cards to help sell their candy.

According to the PSA CardFacts site, the company may have been limiting how much free candy it would have to give away via mail-in redemptions — A redemption was available by sending in a complete set of cards to be exchanged for a one-pound box of assorted chocolates. In fact, the cards would also be returned with the candy, though defaced by cancellation stamps or punch holes.

When those cards were returned as “cancelled” most kids would have thrown them out. And as kids got older, they (or their mom) also likely threw out the remaining cards. The cards are scarce in high grades, with no known PSA 9 or PSA 10 grades. These did come with candy and young kids buying caramel are probably not known for their preservation of condition back in that time period.

The prices of these cards vary greatly because some of the president cards have seen very low numbers of online sales over time. Some cards that may have a last sale of $50 a few years ago may be well into the hundreds of dollars now. And the key presidential cards in top condition can easily sell above $1,000 now. Whether or not the prices continue to rise remains to be seen, but one thing that is becoming more widely known among collectors is that once these are purchased by collectors they rarely come back up for sale until the estate has to figure it out.

Franklin D. Roosevelt’s card is scarcer in PSA registrations because he had only just been elected as president. Abraham Lincoln and George Washington are two of the most collectible names in the set, and they are the two most frequently graded cards as they were likely more prized than other president cards that may have gone in the trash.

Again, please feel free to reach out with an interest of buying or selling these and similar vintage cards. Ogg’s Cards has a large number of these Presidential cards from the 1932 U.S. Caramel set in inventory. If you are looking to sell these or similar vintage sports/nonsports cards please reach out in an email to JONOGG@OGGSCARDS.COM so we can get something worked out.

Below is a full checklist by President in alphabetical order:

• John Adams
• John Quincy Adams
• Chester A. Arthur
• James Buchanan
• Grover Cleveland
• Calvin Coolidge
• Millard Fillmore
• James A. Garfield
• Ulysses S. Grant
• Warren G. Harding
• Benjamin Harrison
• William H. Harrison
• Rutherford B. Hayes
• Herbert Hoover
• Andrew Jackson
• Thomas Jefferson
• Andrew Johnson
• Abraham Lincoln
• James Madison
• William McKinley
• James Monroe
• Franklin Pierce
• James K. Polk
• Franklin D. Roosevelt
• Theodore Roosevelt
• William H. Taft
• Zachary Taylor
• John Tyler
• Martin Van Buren
• George Washington
• Woodrow Wilson