Your Information Resource for Vintage Baseball Cards
  eNews Issue #145 (May 2016)       www.oldcardboard.com


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Welcome to Old Cardboard, the most complete reference resource for information about collecting vintage baseball cards and related memorabilia.  More information about this eNewsletter and its companion website and magazine are found at the bottom of this page.

Contents:
1. Updated Auction and Show Calendar
2. Featured Set: 1927 Exhibits (Set #6)
3. Featured Card: 1927 Exhibit (The Collegian Movie Series)
4. Latest Additions to the OldCardboard.com Website


1. Updated Auction and Show Calendar

The following is a summary of vintage card events coming up in the next 30-45 days. For the most current listings on additional vintage card shows and auctions, see the Key Events Calendar on the Old Cardboard website.

Have an event that needs to be on the OC Calendar?
Email editor@oldcardboard.com.


OC eNewsletter Sponsor

May 2016

22Internet Only Wheatland Auction Services (see website for details).
24Phone/Internet Worthridge Auctions (see website for details).
26Phone/Internet All-Sports Auctions (see website for details).
26Phone/Internet Prestige Collectibles Auction (see website for details).
27Phone/Internet Fusco Auctions (see website for details).
28Phone/Internet Small Traditions Auctions (see website for details).
29Phone/Internet Pristine Auction (see website for details).

June 2016

1Phone/Internet Clean Sweep Auctions (see website for details).
3-4Seattle Washington State Sports Collectors Association Show (see website for details).
9Phone/Internet Goodwin & Co. Auction (see website for details).
11Internet Love of the Game Auction (see website for details).
9-11Long Beach, CA Long Beach Expo (see website for details).
17Phone/Internet Leland's Catalog Auction (see website for details).
18San Leandro, CA San Francisco Bay Area Show (see web page for details)
25Internet Brockelman Auctions (see website for details).
30Phone/Internet Sterling Sports Auctions (see website for details).


2. Featured Set: 1927 "Exhibits" (Set #6)

By 1927, Exhibit Supply Company of Chicago had already been producing baseball cards for distribution in vending machines for seven straight years. It was the first set, however, in which the company added a little color to its products (see
Exhibits--Gallery of Sets, which was recently added to the Old Cardboard website.

While previous sets had been printed in black and white, a green tint was added in 1927, as illustrated in the card of Pittsburgh Hall of Famer Pie Traynor shown at right.

The set is today most commonly referred to as simply the "1927 Exhibits," although early references list the series as Exhibit Set #6.

Labeling for the 1927 cards was also unique from previous years and for the first time was divided between the two lower corners. At bottom left was the player's full name and team. The lower right corner identified the producer, "Ex. Sup. Co. Chgo." followed by "Made in U.S.A."

The cards are designed using all-caps lettering and (with two exceptions noted below) use a block type style.

Curiously, the font used for the cards of Joseph Genenwich and William Hunnefield is slightly larger with a serif (non-block) type style (see Hunnefield example at left). In addition, the card of Glenn Myatt does not have the producer's label in the lower right. Early Exhibit collector Elwood Scharf considered these variations as inexplicable, remarking wryly that "it would appear they were made up to confuse checklisters."

The 1927 set contains 64 cards, split equally with four players from each of the sixteen major league teams at the time. The cards measure about 3-3/8 by 5-3/8 inches and are blank-backed.

Most of the cards show full-body action poses, although there are a few portrait or waist-up poses. All are vertically oriented except the horizontal format used with the George Burns card.

Collector Scharf also noted in an article in the June 1978 issue of The Trader Speaks that every image used in the 1927 Exhibits set is a re-issue from earlier Exhibit productions. Most of the images are re-used from the 128-card 1926 Exhibit set, but also include the images of "Decatur, McInnes, Alexander and Southworth that were last used in 1925."

Scharf also noted that "The 1927 cards did, however, reflect player team transfers of the above four players, along with those of Henline, Bentley, Harper, Hornsby, Neis, Cobb, Collins, Wheat and Speaker, all of whom are shown with labeling for their new teams. There were, however, a few minor cropping differences for some players. Uniforms, of course, reflected the players previous teams."

Though rare, cards have been reported with a a red overprint promoting the 1927 set (see example at right). The text in the overprint reads: "Now Ready, Two New 1927 Series--American League Ball Players and National League Ball Players--printed in green tone ink." The notation further affirms that the set was produced in 1927.

A Set Profile, Checklist and Gallery of Cards for the 1927 Exhibit set are provided on the Old Cardboard website.


3. Featured Card: 1927 Exhibit (The Collegian Movie Series)

Here is a baseball-related Exhibit card that you don't often see. It is an Exhibit card featuring actor George Lewis in a scene from a 1926 Universal Studios production entitled "The Collegian Series." The card is part of a set of movie cards issued in 1927, different from the 1927 Exhibit set of baseball players described above, which is much more familiar to vintage collectors.

The green-tinted card is labeled in the lower left as "George Lewis in 'The Collegian Series,'" followed by "Universal Prod." The lower right identifies the card producer, "Ex. Sup. Co. Chgo." and "Made in U.S.A." As with all Exhibit cards, it measures just over 3-1/4 by 5-1/4 inches. It is blank-backed.

Although the 44-episode "Collegian" silent film series began in 1926, new episodes (chapters) continued into 1927 and perhaps beyond. Although a distinctly separate set, the format for the Exhibit movie cards closely match those in the 64-card 1927 Exhibit baseball series. Both use the same type style and both cards are tinted in green. That, plus the fact that several other known cards in the movie set depicted films released in 1927, strongly suggests that both sets were produced that year.

Each episode (chapter) in the Collegian Series is said to have been complete in itself. The narrative behind the scene shown on the card is perhaps lost in time. Since the theme of the series was college life in the mid-1920s, there were certainly other episodes not related to sports. Any additional information from our readers about the content of the series would be much appreciated.

Lewis' Long Career in Films

The "Collegian Series" films are briefly described in movie references as a serial of "two-reeler" episodes depicting college life of the period (note: "two-reelers" generally refer to film reels about 20 minutes each in length, usually containing silent comedy themes).

George Lewis, the star of the series, was born in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico. He played in dozens of films from the 1920s into the late 1960s. He is probably best known for playing the father of Don Diego de la Vega (Zorro) in the 1950s Disney television series "Zorro."

Sports themes seem to have been popular during the mid-1920s when the Exhibit card set was produced. Another example from the set is provided at left, courtesy of Exhibit collector and Old Cardboard author Adam Warsaw. The card features Red Grange in a scene from the movie "One Minute to Play."

While the labeling indicates that the two cards are from the same set of movie cards, other cards from the set are known to have been printed with other (non-green) color tints.



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4. Latest Additions to the OldCardboard.com Website

We are continually expanding the Old Cardboard website with more set profiles, checklists and card galleries. Recent (past 30-40 days) additions include:

A Group (Type-Card) Gallery has been added for Exhibit Cards (a subgroup of "W" cards). Such Group Galleries are listed at the beginning of each Group Index accessible on the navigation bar at the top of each page on the website. They function as "type card" galleries within each major card group. They are intended to help streamline the identification of various card sets and provide a visual path to the Profile pages on the Old Cardboard website for each set. Each card image in the group represents a vintage baseball card set and includes a link to more detailed information about the issue.

Set Checklists have been added for:
1927   Exhibit Supply Co.

Set Galleries have been added for:
1927   Exhibit Supply Co.

Updating the website with checklists and full set galleries for additional vintage sets is an ongoing project, so check back often to check out the latest additions. There are now many thousands of card images on the website and the list continues to grow every month. We welcome and encourage feedback with checklist additions, images of cards missing from our galleries, error corrections and suggestions. Please send all feedback to editor@oldcardboard.com.

Beyond the above pages recently added to the Old Cardboard website, we continue to expand and refine our eBay Custom Search Links to make finding vintage baseball cards on eBay easier than ever. The results of these searches are continuously changing, so check back often to find the most recent eBay listings. Samples of a few of these custom searches are provided below. Hundreds more are provided on the Set Profile pages throughout the Old Cardboard website.

R-Cards (Pre-WWII)
R300 George C. Miller
R306 Butter Cream
R310 Butterfinger
R313 Nat. Chicle "Fine Pens"
1933 R328 U.S. Caramel
1933 DeLong
1939 Play Ball
1940 Play Ball
1941 Play Ball

R-Cards (Post-WWII)
1943/49 M.P. & Co.
1949 Leaf
1934-36 Batter Up
1929 R316 Kashin
1934-36 Diamond Stars
1941 Double Play
1936 R311 Glossy/Leather
1936 R312 Color Tint
1935 Schutter-Johnson

(more custom searches
by major card group)





Lyman and Brett Hardeman
Old Cardboard, LLC.

Old Cardboard, LLC. was established in December 2003, to help bring information on vintage baseball card collecting to the hobbyist.  Produced by collectors for collectors, this comprehensive resource consists of three components: (1) Old Cardboard Magazine, (2) a companion website at www.oldcardboard.com and (3) this eNewsletter. The Old Cardboard website contains more than 500 pages of descriptive reference information for baseball card sets produced fifty years ago or longer.  Each of these set summaries has a direct set-specific link to auctions and a similar link to 's powerful search engine for further research.  The website also includes a Show and Auction Calendar, an eBay Top 50 Vintage Sellers List, and much more.  As a result, the Old Cardboard website makes a great "Alt-tab" companion for vintage card shoppers and researchers.  Old Cardboard eNews provides current hobby news, upcoming shows and auctions, and updates to the website and the magazine.  It is published around the middle of each month.  For a FREE subscription to the eNewsletter, or for subscription information on Old Cardboard Magazine, please visit the website at www.oldcardboard.com.  If you find this information resource helpful, please tell your friends.  We need your support and your feedback. Thank you.