Reprint or Fake?
Sometime between 1975-1980 at a meeting of the St. Louis Cards Collector's Club (which would evolve into card shows) I ran across a table that had several different mint non-sport Exhibits complete sets. When I commented to the dealer/collector about the great condition he gave an explanation that might be relavent to this discussion. The gentleman's name was P.M. (I'll just use initials for this forum) from southern Illinois. He was a regular at the meetings and always had great a inventory of 1950's and early 60's cards. He explained that he had purchased the Exhibit Supply Co. and had recently printed the Exhibits displayed on his table. I specifically remember him stating, without me asking that these were actually Exhibit cards, but not old cards. I asked if he was able to pick up any old baseball Exhibits. He answered that did not recieve any old cards at all. So, these non-sports were declared modern reprints and not printed as fakes with the intent to cheat anyone. Had this happened after the reprinting of the 1933 Goudeys in the early '80's it might have caused more of a stink. The awareness just wasn't there at the time.
I didn't know P.M. beyond our occasional table discussions and have not seen him for many years, but he was well liked and apparently respected among the group.
Is it a fair assumption that the baseball Exhibits in this discussion had he same origin?
BTW- I didn't buy any of the Exhibits as I was spending my $ on '33 Goudeys. Once in a while I get it right.
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