Exhibit 4 in 1 question

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Posted By: Dan Bretta

Does anyone know if the advertising (what little there was) for these encouraged kids to cut the cards up like strip cards? In my opinion these cards were meant to be cut up like strip cards, but very few if any hobbyists except these cards the same way they will accept the strip cards. No grading company will encapsulate a cut up 4 in 1 will they?

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Posted By: boxingcardman

The initial sets of these cards are often found with a PC back that would have been destroyed had the card been cut up. Also, many are found with corner coupons on the backs, which makes no sense in a strip card arrangement. All of the ads I've seen for 4 on 1 exhibits do not suggest cutting up the cards. I have a 1955 ESCO catalog that has a 4 on 1 cowboy set in it and nothing there suggests cutting them up. Finally, it appears to a certainty that ESCO's art for some of its cards was used to create W517 and W517 minis* and also at least two sets of nonsport strip cards based on ESCO non-sports issues of the day. Doesn't make much sense to create a strip product if the main product was intended as a strip product, too. The most likely explanation of the 4 on 1 idea is that it let ESCO reuse images it already had in stock from prior sets to make new products on the cheap during the Depression.


* See my exhibit page on my web site for examples of original art and the various related ESCO and strip issues.

www.americasgreatboxingcards.com