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

[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.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk

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.

[MINES_MINT]

For the money, M101-2s would be my vote as well. Affordable, great variety of players, with lots of unique images. A few of the photos were used for other major card issues also which is something I personally enjoy.

[53toppscollector]

Last night I was winding down in a day long online auction and saw a listing for a bunch of 1930s-1950s premiums. I didn't know much about them at all, for all I know they are just random reprints, but the price wasnt too bad, so I bought them on a whim. Anyone know exactly what these are? Looks like a random assortment

[Exhibitman]

Those are various photo pack issues. The ones at the top left and similar of stars with the small dark names are from a 1949 all star pack. The ones with plain writing top right look to be Pirates, Indians and maybe a few other team issues. All around that time frame.

[bigfanNY]

My Suggestion for larger scale "cards" especially if you like W600's is W601's they display great the players and photos are terrific. I have a few and purchased a couple in the past year. I think alot of value for such an early issue. You can focus on a team or player or World series foes. Plenty of ways to collect. Card below is an example ( not mine but I did bid on it recently.

[BeanTown]

1899-1900 M101-1 The Sporting News Supplements would be the best long term investment IMO. This set includes the Honus Wagner rookie.

https://oldcardboard.com/m/m101-1/m1...?cardsetID=961


Also the 1909-13 M101-2 Sporting News Supplements still somewhat affordable and have become very popular of late, led by the early image of Ty Cobb. This set is loaded with HOFers.

https://oldcardboard.com/m/m101-2/m1...?cardsetID=962

Supplements have always been a bit of a nitche, but are moving more mainstream like postcards did 10-15 years ago.