1926-1929 Exhibits Postcard back

[smtjoy]

Hello and welcome,

Its a great set overall, one of my favorites. Its a really hard exhibit set to complete because a few of the cards are very hard to come by. I have been working on mine for over 6 years and I still need 25% of the set. Many cards from the set were produced every year and are pretty common, like the Waner Portrait. Others made it in 2 or so years and are 2-3 x harder than the common cards, the Waner Batting Photo would fit this. Then you have a few that were only printed for a year or less and they are very hard to come by maybe 8 x 10 times harder than the commons, these include a few of the variations, a few single players and all of the Plain backgroup cards, the Waner Batting Plain version is an example.

As far as overall pop there are not a ton of these cards out there and some will never have more than a 20ish card pop. One thing to note PSA is horrible on labeling the variations in this set esp the plain vs photo cards so dont put too much into the pop report as I have seen as many errors as I have correct cards for many. I would also venture to say there are still a lot of raw sets out there, prolly more than has been graded.

Here are a couple tough ones-

[fkw]

Here is one of the scarcer "Name in Box" coverup variation, I believe they are single year issue too.

Im guessing issued at least in 1928 (date written 3 times on back)

[wrapperguy]

Even though they are listed on the flip as 1926-29, Adam Warshaw wrote an article for Old Cardboard #12 where he believes they should really be 1925-31. I have a complete set less several of the plain backgrounds and there are several commons that were tough to find, and I still do not see them for sale anywhere. My toughest ones were Smith, Wheat, and Williams. Great set! Good luck collecting it!

[wrapperguy]

Here are a couple:

[ls7plus]

Thanks Guys--appreciate your time!

Larry

[Exhibitman]

Oh boy...where do I start?

This is my favorite Exhibit set and I've been collecting/studying it for about 20 years.

The set is undoubtedly of the longer time frame (25-31) than commonly thought, unless the card makers were friggin psychics, since there are team changes reflecting trades and initial issue cards that did not reflect trades before the traditional starting date. The company also had a nasty habit with multi-year sets of pulling and replacing cards, so there are shortprints all over the place. For example, Speaker is in a Senators uni listed with the A's. That is a 1928 card and it is moderately difficult since he retired part way into the season. Since he has a silhouette card too (discussed below), it also seems likely that the silhouette variations were created in 1928 and issued for a part season before new cards replaced them for 1929 (I don't think it is coincidental that there are six second poses and eight silhouettes--I believe the new poses and 2 new players (Klein and O'Doul??) replaced the silhouettes).

Fronts

The Old Cardboard gallery has a complete set of fronts to view:

http://www.oldcardboard.com/w/exhibi...1927-29gal.asp

Note that their 4 on 1 gallery is incomplete. Here is a complete one:

http://imageevent.com/exhibitman/4on1pcbackset

There are two forms of front variation: new images and reworked art.

The first reworks are the pasted on labels on Cobb, Frisch, Hornsby, Peckinpaugh and Rouch. The company literally pasted a label on the card fronts and reshot the artwork. There are varying levels of difficulty on these. Peckinpaugh was on his last legs so his card is a short print. Cobb too was a short print (though not as bad) as his career was nearly over. Hornsby is most common one to find.

The other rework are the silhouette fronts. There, the company cut away the background and put in a solid background instead. Again, see the Old Cardboard page for contrasting examples. The cards Scott put up that SGC labled "plain background" are examples. You know they came later than their counterparts because the original photos had to be destroyed and then reshot to make them. They are short printed, I suspect because they were replaced with new poses of popular players and new cards of up and coming players (like Klein and O'Doul).

Both of the above appear to be ways to extend the shelf-life of earlier art, something the company is notorious for doing.

The other variations are big-name players with new cards: Gehrig, Heilmann, Hornsby, Simmons, Ruth, Waner.

A note on the 4 on 1s: they are reused art for the most part (a few exceptions--see if you can find them) and have the Gehrig and Waner portraits and O'Doul with Brooklyn (that's one of the non-set variations). Tells me that the 4 n 1s were issued around 1931 (O'Doul was traded to Brooklyn after the 1930 season) and that the portaits of Waner and Gehrig came after the batting poses. Now, the earlier 4 on 1s with the sloppy lettering and mixed sports used the batting poses, which is consistent with them being earlier issued. I suspect 1926-1928 since there is a known example with the printed coupon back.

Backs

The backs are the key to decoding the set printing sequences. The first printings were blank backed. Next came the PC backs with "This Side For Correspondence" printed on them. After that came the "Not To Be Used In Exhibit Machines" backs, later with "Made In The USA" added at the tops. For example, I have never seen a Hornsby Chicago with a blank or correspondence back and do not expect to do so since the trade that landed him in CHI took place after the 1928 season. Similarly, I would be surprised to see a Gehrig or Ruth portrait or a silhouette card with a blank back. The Gehrig batting may be a rookie card (if it had a blank back) but the portrait is not--it was likely a 1929 and later issue.

On rare occasions you will also find an ESCO corner coupon. Since the coupon stuff started in 1927 (hand stamped coupons are known on 1927 baseball cards and 1928 PCL cards, with printed coupons regularly found in later sets), you can peg some printings to no earlier than 1928 via the coupons, if you happen to run across one. Of course if you do you have a rare printing anyway.

Thats all I have time for now...gotta go to work.

[thegashousegang]

Some great info here, thanks a bunch.