Exhibit Machine

[marvymelvin]

Upon a close up, I can tell fairly easily that the Sullivan Ring front display is two separate cards. Upon opening you might find that they are thin paper, but often they were original cards behind the glass.

I am a baseball card collector, but also a coin-op collector and have owned several of these over the years from all eras. Exhibit Supply was the most prolific makers of card vending machines, but one can find other makers. The Exhibit Supply machines were hands down the best collectables.

The comment about being concerned about the cards in the front not being from the same set, is really nothing to be concerned about. An arcade owner might use these machines from 10-20-or even 40-50 years. I have seen these in locations vending cards 40 years after they were made. Also, a previous owner/collector might have just switched out some cards to his liking. Maybe he likes Ruth and Williams and simply put a few of each in the window.

The machine is likely to have had many owners. What the cards are in the glass is really irrelevant to authenticity. It may a have an added value if the cards are real and if the cards in the window are valuable. But these machines vended literally 100's of genres, themes etc. from cowboys to singers to movie stars and athletes of all kinds. The vending company would simply switch out the cards in the front for whatever they were vending.

The machines were made generically from the Exhibit Supply (ESCO) facility and shipped with whatever cards the vendor wanted to sell.

Here is one I own in Oak. It is a perfect era of manufacture (1920ish) for the older Exhibit Supply cards. I plan to put some nice early baseball Exhibits in it. Again, if you find one, and even better buy it, don't worry about losing originality by changing the product on the window. It was probably done a hundred times already. I have had this argument a lot with baseball collectors who wanted a "baseball card vendor", and passed on a "boxing vendor" and wished they had one with baseball cards in it. Or someone who was mortified I swapped the cards out, because I messed with the originality.


The metal ones were a bit newer. The boxing one shared by exhibitman and the Ring/Sullivan one by smtjoy are approx. 1930s. The blue one is similar but a bit later approx. 1940's. The taller blue/green one is 50's/60's. My wood one 1920's ish. There were also tall floor standing machines, larger ones with lights and huge display glass, some even working on vacumatic mechanism that would suck up the card via a plunger and drop it in the chute to pick up.

Coin-op/gum and candy machine collectors know these machines well and are well aware of the "different cards" thing. So, don't pass up one if you can find one. $235 for 2 cent is a steal. If it is complete it can sell on a good day for upwards of $500 (don't worry about the paint as you can see, metal case is easy to restore). The taller metal case 1950's-60's is a bit less in value, the taller floor standing vacumatic machines are also $500-$600. The Oak machine I have has a bit of premium over the metal ones due to being older and Oak, and that not as many were made.

They are great and a fun way to display cards. I bought one of the smaller counter top units once without a key, and found it full of Gene Autry and Roy Rogers cards. Wow that was awesome. Wish I could find one full of 1920's baseball Exhibits. That would be even better.