W560 advice; Hornsby and Johnson

[abothebear]

According to the checklist on VintageCardPrices.com there is no Cobb in the set.

[abothebear]

If the W560 is a 1929 issue then that would mean the R315 would move ahead of it for Foxx. Is there an earlier Foxx than that one? There is a '26-'29 exhibit but I don't know how those work, does that guarantees a '26 or '27 issue for Foxx?

[leftygrove10]

There are some questions regarding the year of issue for the R315's as well. It may have been issued over several years. I believe that some have proposed here on net54 that the year of issue should be more like 1930 or 1931 for the R315's. You will likely find the post that I'm referring to by searching the website. (I can't do it at the moment.)

The range of years for the postcard-back exhibits raise questions as well. To confirm the year for a particular player, you would have to find the original photo used to make the card and try to track down the year in which that photo was taken. Someone told me that Conlon dated all of his photos. If Foxx's photo is by Conlon, then there must be a date somewhere for that picture. As far as the Grove postcard-back exhibit, I believe that it was a Conlon photo taken in 1928.

[rhettyeakley]

I think it is important to point out that the single color set and the bi-cololred sets are DIFFERENT SETS. The selection of subjects changed slightly.

The bi-colored set was produced first (as Frank mentioned) while the single color set came after, although they could have been made the same year as 1929 seems to be the common denominator in all this. The bi-colored set had a much more mixed subject matter as you can see on Leon's sheet above (Walter Hagan(golf), Delores Costello (actress), Max Schmelling (boxer), and a bunch of aviators). While those subjects have been replaced on my single color sheet with more ballplayers, Maguire first played with Boston in 1929 (there's that date again).

The reason I say it is clear that the bi-colored set came first is the card of Lester Bell on my sheet below, when I first saw the card I wondered why the heck there were little parachuters on the card (I assume it was a "wild" card for the deck). Then a few years later I saw the same sheet Leon has and I realized they had just recycled the format already laid out with the aviator as the subject (where a parachutist would have made sense) and replaced that subject with a ballplayer and just kept the parachute design.

-Rhett

[leftygrove10]

Here is the thread about the year of issue for the R315's...

http://www.network54.com/Forum/15365...64/R315+Dating

[abothebear]

These kinds of things are one of the reasons I have shifted toward pre-war cards. There are still mysteries to be solved.

[abothebear]

Hey guys,

I finally got around to writing up the auction for these rare beauties and I posted them over in the B/S/T section if anyone is interested. Auction ends on Sunday, bid early and bid often.

[ls7plus]

Interesting question re the W560 Foxx being a true 1927 rookie. If one assumes the roster for the cards was determined based on the player's performance the year before, it would seem unlikely Foxx's card was truly issued in 1927. In 1926, he played in only 26 games and had just 32 at bats (hitting .313 with 0 HR's). Even if the issue was released during the 1927 season, or shortly thereafter, he might well not have been deemed worthy of selection for the set. That year he played in just 61 games, with 130 at bats, hitting .323 with five HR's (good states for a part-time 19-20-year-old, but maybe unlikely to gain him sufficient notice for inclusion into the set). Foxx' first real year of note was 1928, when he appeared in 118 games as a 20-21 year old, had 400 at bats, with 13 HR's and a .328 average. For a youngster, even then, that should have gotten him noticed! However, Jimmie's first big year didn't come until 1929, when he pounded out 33 HR's and batted a resounding .354. I'd always wondered how he would have managed to have been included in a 1927 set, based on where he was at in his career at that time.

Barry's on record as saying the 1926-1929 Exhibits Postcard back is his rookie, and I agree, but am somewhat biased, as I have that issue in EX (although I also have both the R315 in the scarcer gold/yellow stock variation as well as the more commonly seen black and white example). Frankly, I never did like the W560's, and would not be disappointed to learn that 1929 was the real date of issuance for that set. As Barry said in an earlier post on this very issue, let the debate begin!


Adam is almost certainly the most knowledgable with regard to the most probable date the 1926-1929 Exhibits Foxx was actually issued, however. It might be deduced from the PSA pop reports that this card was a one-year issue. It is fairly tough to acquire in higher grades.

Larry