1940 Gum, Inc. Superman #1

the card

notes

Card 1 of the Gum, Inc. set introduces the character and his origin, and its story text contains the spelling Kal-El.

The name is why this card is chased, and the history of it is more tangled than it is usually told. Kal-El had appeared before, in the newspaper strip of 17 January 1939, spelled Kal-L. The version with the E first appears in the story text on card 33 of the 1940 Leader Novelty Superman Candy & Surprise series, which came out earlier in the same year. Gum, Inc. reprinted that art and that text as its card 1.

So this is not the first place the spelling was printed. It is the first place most people saw it, on a card sold in penny packs across the country rather than on the back of a candy box, and it is the version that every comic, film and television series has followed since.

Gum, Inc. of Philadelphia made the set - the same firm behind Play Ball baseball, which advertised these cards on the backs of its 1940 second series. The front shows Superman in flight over a city skyline beside a fighter aircraft. The back explains the scene, carries the card number and a black and white Superman design, and advertises the Supermen of America Club.

It is the most recorded card in the set. PSA has seen 159 copies against a set average of 108, which is what happens to the first card in any stack: it sat on the outside, took the rubber band, and absorbed the handling meant for all seventy-two.

The grades reflect that. Of 159 copies, ninety are a PSA 1 or 2 - fifty-seven per cent of everything submitted. PSA records one 8, no 9 and no 10. Six copies are 7 and six are 6, so thirteen cards in PSA's records grade above a 5.

Across the set as a whole PSA has recorded six 9s in 7,763 copies and has never recorded a 10. Card 1 has none of the six.

Three other companies have graded it. SGC has recorded 55 copies with a best of 5.5. BGS has recorded 7 with a best of 4.5. Two hundred and twenty-one graded copies across three companies, and the single PSA 8 is the finest example any of them has seen.

population

PSA

graded elsewhere

recorded 29 aug 2026. figures are a snapshot on that date, not a live count.

recorded sales

dated past results, not an estimate of what a copy is worth today. figures published by an auction house normally include the buyer's premium, so they are more than the seller received.

where to buy one

Buy graded and verify the certificate. The set was reprinted in the 1980s, and a crisp inexpensive 1940 Superman card is far more likely to be a reprint than a find. On card 1, where the money is, that check is not optional.

Grade expectations should be set to the card rather than to the price. Fifty-seven per cent of the graded population is a PSA 1 or 2. A PSA 3 or 4 is a normal, honest example. A PSA 5 is strong. Above that you are into single figures of recorded copies.

Low grade is not a compromise here, it is the market. If you want to own this card, a PSA 2 is this card.

Expect rubber band impressions, rounded corners and surface wear from a stack carried in a pocket. These are original to how the cards were used and they are the reason the population looks the way it does.

Watch which 1940 Superman card you are being offered. The Leader Novelty Candy & Surprise issue is also from 1940, is also catalogued under Superman, and uses different titles for shared artwork - its card 1 is titled Through the Flames. Grading companies catalogue the two sets separately and figures quoted for one do not describe the other.

Check the size before buying pages. At 2 and 1/2 by 3 and 1/8 inches this will not sit in a standard modern sleeve.

what to check before you buy

Verify the certificate number with the grading company. Reprints from the 1980s exist in quantity and are the main hazard on this card.

Confirm which 1940 set the slab names. Leader Novelty and Gum, Inc. both issued Superman cards in 1940 under separate catalogue numbers, R146 and R145, and a label naming the wrong one is a different card rather than a variation.

On a raw card, be suspicious of sharpness. A 1940 card that looks new is almost certainly not from 1940.

Look for rubber band marks across the middle. They are the characteristic damage on this set and on card 1 above all, because it sat on the outside of the stack.

Check the corners and edges for the rounding that comes from being carried loose.

Read the label for a qualifier. PSA records 21 qualified copies of this card, thirteen per cent of its total - high, and worth noticing before you bid.

sources