Collecting Exhibits/Supplements/larger pre-war photos on a budget

[G1911]

The Sporting News Supplements are a great one.

Also, the Gpoudey and National Chicle wide pen and fine pen premiums of the 1930's. Cards are very cheap in lower grade relative to other sets, and basically just large photos.

[todeen]

Originally Posted by G1911

The Sporting News Supplements are a great one.



Also, the Gpoudey and National Chicle wide pen and fine pen premiums of the 1930's. Cards are very cheap in lower grade relative to other sets, and basically just large photos.

Yes, I just picked up an Ernie Lombardi wide pen. I was happy with the price for a decent looking card.

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[Jobu]

Take a look at Fan Craze. At 2.5" x 3.5" they aren't massive, but they are quite a bit bigger than most of the cards from that era and they use the excellent Carl Horner photos used for many T206 portraits and other issues.

[jingram058]

These are my favorite non-cards in my collection. They were supplements included with the Philadelphia Inquirer newspaper.

[nolemmings]

The questions I would have for you are: 1) what do you consider a card? 2) are you a set collector? And what era do you prefer?

Many of the suggestions are for premiums or oversized items. If you are a more “traditional” card collector, you might find these unsatisfying, although since you expressed an interest in the W600 cabinets, it seems at least the post-card size sets would fit your criteria. If that is true, the 1921 Exhibits might be a good fit.

If you are a set collector, you should probably forget about m101s, unless you don’t mind being either forever incomplete or laying out six figures for a Ruth rookie. Several of the sets are large–120 to 200 or so cards- and would require a pretty strong commitment. If you want to go that road, then maybe E121-80 fits, although if you get tied up chasing slightly different back variations, then maybe not. A smaller set that you might like is E253 Oxford Confectionery– only 20 cards, but with 70% HOFers, including Ruth, Cobb, Hornsby and Johnson.

The ice cream sets of circa 1928 are also popular, although I’m not crazy about them personally. That starts to move you into another era though, as do the Kashin and then the later Fine & Wide Pens, Gold Medal, etc. These are nice choices too, and are very reasonably priced, but contain a different set of key players. The same can be said for the early Fan Craze cards, which I love, but which some avoid because they are all capless portraits.

Lots of choices--good luck!

[todeen]

Originally Posted by nolemmings

the 1921 Exhibits might be a good fit.

I think one of your conditions was affordability. This set took a major price spike in the pandemic. I've seen the Ty Cobb double in price. If you look on ebay, the same cards in extremely poor condition that were $1000 just twelve months ago have all been raised in price to almost $2000.

Rogers Hornsby in this set appears to have tripled in value since the calendar turned to a new year. I'm kicking myself for not picking it up in January.

Walter Johnson and Babe Ruth have rocketed out of my price range.

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[BobC]

Originally Posted by todeen

I think one of your conditions was affordability. This set took a major price spike in the pandemic. I've seen the Ty Cobb double in price. If you look on ebay, the same cards in extremely poor condition that were $1000 just twelve months ago have all been raised in price to almost $2000.

Rogers Hornsby in this set appears to have tripled in value since the calendar turned to a new year. I'm kicking myself for not picking it up in January.

Walter Johnson and Babe Ruth have rocketed out of my price range.

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The M101-2 Sporting News Supplements had also just seen a recent price surge for some of the superstar players in the Memory Lane auction from just a month or two ago. There was a thread about it you can look up that also talked about how great the set and its images are, and how you can still often find many of the 100 total supplements that comprise the set for aroung $100 or less.

That thread also includes more images from the set you can view. Overall, the supplements average size is approximately in the 7-1/2" - 8-1/2" X 10" range, but there are a couple two-page team photos that are about 16" X 10". To my knowledge, most all the M101-2 photos are unique to thet set. The set is also rather unique in that it contains not just portraits and action shots of current active players, but also duo player images, managers, team owners, league executives, team photos, and even one supplement of four umpires, of which two are in the hall of fame. I also don't know of any other pre-war set that includes Cobb, Wagner, WaJo, Mathewson, Speaker, Lajoie, Cy Young, Joss, and Joe Jackson, all while actively still playing. The set does have an advantage in that respect as it was put out from 1909 to 1913.

The images are great, and personally I think it is the best early image of Joe Jackson out there, especially when compared to the likes of some of his early caramel cards where it looks like he's wearing lipstick.

A lot of other good suggestions as well.

[53toppscollector]

I think my focus when thinking about collecting something like this is to collect something larger than a standard card. As I mentioned, the W600s are beautiful and visually stunning, so that is what drew me into this realm, and I know those are large and extremely expensive, so my aim was really to find something similar, but a few price brackets down.

I really love the look of the M101-2s. From poking around ebay completed sales, it looks like I can find lower ungraded copies for some of them at $100 or less, which is definitely the price range I was focusing on.

One sort of self imposed prerequisite, beyond cost, is that the items I focus on not be incredibly rare/never pop up. I'm already collecting one set where supply of certain cards is extremely limited, so I'm not looking to ramp up the degree of difficulty.

I like the availability of the W462 set, and the cost, but I want to focus on mainly pre-war players at this point. I may expand that and look to grab post-war hall of famers too, but I'm sort of looking for a good entry point and there are TONS of options, so its a tad overwhelming.