Favorite sets of the 1920's?

[smtjoy]

Thanks Larry, its one of my favorite cards also. Not many out there for sure, the PSA and SGC pop reports each only have 1 total graded, I have seen 3 in about 7 years. My guess would be 10-15 out there. I was lucky a Net54 member surprised me and decided to sell it and I got the deal done.

The Gehrig has back damage (paper loss), I love finding them that way as the fronts are whats important to me!

[Exhibitman]

In addition to being a helluva card, Scott's 1923-24 Ruth illustrates an urban myth about the 1921-24 issues, which is that you can always tell the American League cards from the two years apart based on the use of "Am.L." instead of "A.L." The 1922s used "A.L." as did new cards in 1923:



But recycled images like the Ruth did not.



Images that went through background changes were re-lettered with A.L., so you can tell them apart with that technique:



Which makes total sense since they were redoing the underlying artwork rather than recycling it with a border on it as they did with the Ruth.

I suspect that the urban myth got its start about 30 years ago when Beckett grouped all three sets into a single listing in its book.

Sorry to pontificate a bit, I just find the issue fascinating. Exhibits are just not susceptible to a uniform set of rules. They are what they are, except when they aren't.

[ls7plus]

The book, Adam, the book! You're the guy with probably the only credentials and experience to write it, and I just love Exhibits. It should be apparent to all that the image reproduction was significantly ahead of its competitors, and as both you and Scott have pointed out, there are some very significant rarities in the series.

As I'm sure you intend to, Scott, hang on to the Ruth--my bet is that it will do very, very nicely in the future. Unless of course you want to find it a good new home, where I can assure you I will take the very best care of it till death do us part! To me, it's not only rare, but just oozes significance, since '23 was the first year the Yankees won the World Championship, and the first year of Yankee Stadium, with you know who hitting the first HR there. Plus the fat fellow hit a career high .393, 41 HR's and had a .545 on base %, going purely by memory! If you do ever want to sell it, please let me know. I also agree with you re back damage--I was delighted to obtain a '56 Kahn's Frank Robinson with an EX+ front and back damage from apparently being improperly removed from a scrapbook. After many years of searching for a nice one, that one fits the bill for me, even though SGC graded it only fair.

Thanks, guys, for sharing your knowledge.

Larry