PSA 8 1960 Clay Exhibit??

[Peter_Spaeth]

Originally Posted by Exhibitman

Yeah, the dumbasses at PSA. The poor winner could've gotten a nice early Clay item for that money.

I don't think it really sold.

[Exhibitman]

FWIW, a raw green with visible mildew staining sold for $1226 on eBay recently, so I think the secret is out on the Exhibit Clay cards.

[sthoemke]

I have a small stack of the Green Wrestlers. (shared a sheet with the boxers)

I can definately say that they are rarer/scarcer, and tougher condition-wise.

I believe the green-tints were released first, although I haven't seen absolute "proof" of that.

[Exhibitman]

Now, here is a 1969 sale list from ESCO:



I don't know if you can make it out but under "sports cards" the prizefighters and wrestlers are the only available sets. The other non-sport topicals give a clue. The Beach Bunnies (pin-ups) are a set I have handled quite a bit (yeah, insert dirty joke here) and they are the same stock and printing as the BW boxers. As are the later Jets versions.

So, by 1969 the company had stopped making baseball cards but was still willing to crank out boxing and wrestling cards. Judging from the populations, I don't think there were many takers. My purely unscientific observation is that the sepias are the easiest to find, followed by the greenies, and the BW are the toughest. Well, the slicks are the toughest but they aren't 'cards' per se.

[sthoemke]

Fantastic sales sheet.

I google mapped the address, and looks like the building is still there.

https://www.google.com/maps/@41.8864...8192?entry=ttu

[Exhibitman]

I've been searching for years to get ESCO catalogs, sale sheets, samples, and other marketing materials to try and debunk some of the hobby myths associated with these sets. Like dates on the football set. A million years ago, when dinosaurs ruled the hobby, someone pulled 1948-52 out of his butt and that became the set date. Worse yet, some other myth-makers attached those dates to the Canadian Exhibit issues (except the dated 1953 set). Well, I found a catalog offering the football cards in 1955. The 1950 catalog offers the HOF baseball set as a "new series" illustrated with the Ruth standing in front of the bat rack pose. So much for the 1948 date that the dinos put on the set.

As it regards Clay, a 1961 ESCO catalog states that the boxers are "Revised for 1961". Does that mean they went to the 16-card set in 1961? No. The catalog lists 32 cards in the set. What I need to see are 1962-1963 catalogs and order forms to see when they went to the 16-card issue. When that happened is when the Clay happened.

[sthoemke]

I was reviewing the 1961 sales packet currently listed on ebay, and see that it states that there were 51 different sets available for that year.

Are set counts known for any other years?