1921 Schapira Big Show - Show and Tell
 

I'm attaching scans of a few 1921 Schapira Big Shows I picked up some many years ago...
I've had little luck in finding out too much about the set and was hoping there's some fellow board members out there who'd be able to help shine some light on these cards (and also to post any they may own)

-It seems that the majority of the cards I've seen have been folded down the middle::::has anyone seen any that are not? and if so, how were these unfolded cards distributed?

-Does anyone have an educated guess as to a population count of these cards?

-Are there any cards from the set which seem to be more ubiquitous, or any which seem more scarce?

Thanks-----------------Daniel

Neat and esoteric cards. Here are some I used to own...I have seen some without creases. I heard they were folded to fit in the boxes but am not sure of that..

http://luckeycards.com/peuncschapiradisplaymaster.jpg

Well, all I can say is that I like them and never owned one 😒

My only story is that I tried really hard with making many late night bids and fell short being the under bidder on the Cobb in the recent HA auction. It was fun watching and knowing I was minutes away from being the owner of the card to only have my hopes dashed with a higher bid on multiple occassions.

Oh well... It was fun bidding.. 😉

Daniel, I currently own only the 3 cards pictured below. I once owned a few more of these Schapiras plus a few candy boxes, but I traded them to Leon some years ago. I don't know anything more about this set than has already been mentioned. SGC has graded a total of 20 of these cards, so they are quite scarce - I can't check the PSA pop report as PSA's web site is on the fritz right now.

All of the cards I own/owned have the horizontal crease, but, like Leon, I have seen a couple that had never been folded. If my Alzheimer's-like memory is correct, when I had the boxes, I did try to see if an unfolded card would fit into a candy box - if memory serves me correctly (and it often doesn't), it did not fit flat against a side of the box, but did fit very tightly in a diagonal fashion, which would make it more difficult to insert the candy. Leon, did you ever try to fit a Schapira card into a candy box?

I note that your WaJo card and my two WaJos are each miscut on the left side - I wonder if all the WaJo cards are like this. Speaking of WaJo cards, I submitted my WaJo card with the blemish near the lower left corner to SGC, but they wouldn't grade it (see their response below), which surprised me - I plan to take all three of my Schapiras to the upcoming Philly Show and try to convince SGC in person that they are all authentic.

Val

Late entries:

I did take my 3 Schapira cards to the Philly Show at the beginning of this month and showed them to SGC. This convinced them that the one card I wanted graded, the WaJo with the surface blemish in the lower left corner, is authentic, and it now resides in a SGC 10 holder. FYI, this card will appear in the January LOTG Auction.
Val