1927 Exhibit- Salesman's sample.....

[Exhibitman]

Not me; I was stunned by the price level it hit.



Glad I have one already

[nolemmings]

Very cool cards--ah Leon, the burdens of being a hunter of the extraordinary!!

Adam (and others), can you tell us uninitiated if the '20's Exhibits have salesman's samples like these from other sets in the Exhibit line--different years or colors?

I would love to have one of these for type but have zero idea on how scarce they might be (and hence how much I'll probably have to pay). Care to share any trade secrets?

[Exhibitman]

Very scarce, as the price of the recent one showed. I've seen sample cards from the 1925 boxing set so I assume there were others. The only prewar baseball samples I can recall are the 1927s.

[dstudeba]

Awesome piece, thanks for showing. Congrats on yours Adam.

[Exhibitman]

Thanks, Dan. Todd, to further elaborate, my recall is I've seen 3-4 tops over the years. About the same # as the 1927 coupon backs I've seen.

[David W]

Just to play devils advocate here, how hard would it be to make
a contemporary stamp and turn some other exhibits into

"salesmans samples"?

How can you be sure this is legit?

[Exhibitman]

Actually, harder than making an "Old Put" stamp and putting it on back of a caramel card. The Exhibit sample writing is printed on the card, not stamped after the fact. ESCO later switched to a stamped format for samples:



The difference is readily discerned.

Until recently no one would have even thought to do it because the ROI wasn't there. The price of this sample was a shocker. Plus they are so hard to find that having a good enough example to make a convincing stamp from would have been a challenge. I suppose someone could try it now but I doubt they'd get it right enough to pass muster with anyone who's seen one before.

As for whether the latest one was legit, if that is at issue, the seller is a legitimate dealer who was breaking down a big group of exhibits. My experience in chasing ESCO issues for the better part of two decades is that they tend to come to market in mixed-subject original groups like the seller had. Nothing in any of his cards has led me to worry about counterfeiting or anything else rotten in Denmark about his offerings.

Now, what someone could concoct would be the coupon stamp that appears on rare occasions on back of 1927s: