Polar Beer Cards



	Front and back of Polar Beer cards in question.

Authentic schedule with correct Polar Beer Logo

1950s Polar Beer Card Set: In the case of the Polar Beer set, that began appearing in auction in 2005, I have lots of reservations about the authenticity of the set. I know many collectors of Cuban baseball cards both inside Cuba and hear in the US. Some that are actually old enough to remember the cards from the 1950s as they were issued in Cuba. Not one of my collector friends recalls or has ever seen before a single card from the reputed Polar beer set. Here is a list of problems I have with the set.

1. The Polar beer logo is wrong: The Polar Beer logo on the front faces of the cards is missing the line underneath the word Polar visible on all other Polar Beer items I have seen. See this link for samples of some Polar Beer items: Collector Schedule.

2. Photos used: All the photos look like they were taken by American photographers of players in Major League uniforms (even if they played in Cuba). I find it hard to believe that a Cuban company would go to the US to purchase photos from American photographers and pay licensing fees instead of using local photo stock. Also many of the photos I recognize from other publications. If I took the time I could probably document were these photos were actually printed.

3. The player selection: The next issue I have is player selection. Very few Cuban sets included major leaguers. If they did it was usually big stars that would be very familiar in Cuba. So why would they make a card of Amos Rusie? Even Harry Hooper is a stretch. The reason is that all the Americans that have appeared for sale so far are in the Hall of Fame. The issue is that most were elected to the hall of fame years or decades after the cards were purportedly made. See list below:

Oscar Charleston	1976	Monte Irvin	1973
Lou Gehrig	1934	Jimmie Foxx	1951
Josh Gibson	1972	George Sisler	1939
Lefty Gomez	1972	Harry Hooper	1971
Willie Keeler	1939	Jackie Robinson	1962
Eddie Plank	1946	George Kell	1983
Lou Boudreau	1970	Willie Mays	1979
Pee Wee Reese	1984	Amos Rusie	1977

4. The style and how where they issued: Another question that has to be considered is the style of cards. They look more like the cards made in the 1920s than they do cards from the 1950s. They look just like the Nacionales cards from 1923-24. Also how did Polar Beer issue the cards? They made beer, but the cards are sized like candy or tobacco cards. As you see in the link above they tended to advertise more is schedules which could be given to sellers of their beer to give to the public.

5. The seller: The cards come from only one source. Single source items bother me. Even with the most rare Cuban card sets I have found multiple sources of information, images, and knowledge of the cards. The seller stated that he got them from his reputable partner in Cuba. What does he mean by reputable? How can that be verified? We can't just call the Cuban better business bureau. This same dealer has also put on sale other sets that have been called into question by my collector friends. See the link to my page on questionable sets: Fake Cards.