Exhibits - why relatively cheap ?

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Posted By: steve

The larger Exhibit cards have my interest. They have very nice photos with larger pictures. They often have single digit population numbers. And the prices seem to be a fraction of a "regular issue" price. Almost seems to good to be true.

Supply & Demand - well, they certainly have low supply in nice grade - then demand must be extraordinarily low, yes ? And why ??

Made pre-war through the 1960's, these Exhibit cards (HOF star players) seem to have a lot of headroom.

Thoughts on investment value? Thanks, Steve.

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Posted By: davidcycleback

There's nothing hidden wrong with the Exhibits, and the Pre-War issues may indeed be undervalued. Though the 1947-66 are extra plentiful-- so, other than rare variations, SPs and mint cards-- that issue will never be worth lots.

As they are not like the classic baseball card-- too large, often blank backed-- many collectors either don't classify them as cards or consider them oddball. This has something to do with demand.

If Exhibits interest you as a collector, there's no reason not to collect them.

Also, the Exhibit Supply auctioned off lots of its archives, meaning the original art (photos) for many of the cards are around-- this includes the art for Ruth, Cobb, Mantle, Mays, etc.

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Posted By: Paul S

I've always really liked the card type, I find them very appealing. There are a couple of forum members who really know the ins and outs of them, so they can answer better than I. Maybe besides their wide and decades-long distribution, some collectors might find that -- except for a few post-war years, the backs are blank. As far as a card investment, what "doesn't" rise in price (he asked rhetorically.)? Only a matter of time I'd guess. Most HOFers are relatively, affordable. The Ruth's, Cobb's and Gehrig's are usually several times higher than the next highest price, especially the Ruths. Here's a few '21s to tide you over.



(edited to say:) Ruth looks like he's having a great time, and Ring and Collins are smiling big time. What's not to like?

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Posted By: Gilbert Maines

Exhibits are a quite attractive set in many respects. However, they are postcard sized, which is thought of as too big by some collectors. Their price is lower than many issues, and I am sure that the price of these cards reflects their lack of popularity. An additional cause of this set being less popular than some, is that it was issued without a product. This factor is considered important by some collectors because they feel that the product which the card is issued with somehow validates the card.

Regarding scarcity, I would place no emphasis on the population numbers published by grading companies. There are numerous factors in play here which tend to skew this information.

As you note, the Exhibits are one of the longest running sets in our hobby. The set requires some study in order to determine the dating for the cards with reliability. Quite often identical player images were used for several years. Some years can be identified by the color of the cards, other years have numerous colors incorporated within its year of issuance.

As far as investment potential, our hobby has been experiencing an increase in card values across the board for a while now. There is no indication that any area is substantially weakening, nor is a softening of the market forecast. However, in my opinion, this hobby is a lot more fun if appreciation is not considered as a motivating factor in card acquisition. Not everyone agrees with this philosophy.

Good luck.

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Posted By: steve

Thanks for input folks.

But confused - David earlier mentioned the 1947-66 Exhibits as plentiful. I checked PSA pop reports - all major HOF'ers are only single digit (sometimes less than 3) pops in 6, 7 & 8 grades except the Aaron card a little more. The Satchell Paige card list one PSA 6 with none higher, wow!

I checked the 1962 Exhibits stat backs and the pops again show miniscule graded numbers all the way around. And of course the pre war pop figures are also very low.

Are there tons of these out there in true EX-MT or better quality that have not yet made their way to the grading companies?

Paul, nice Ruth exhibit card - would love to own a nice copy. Steve.

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Posted By: Paul S

Steve,
Those cards are part of the first row of an original Exhibit vending display that I got about 1970 for $5 (yes, five!), from one of those kitschy(sp?) nostalgia stores where most of the items were from the 50's. It is 4 rows of four cards each row. There are about half a dozen HOFers on it. Unfortunately it's taken some abuse during the years. I should have listened to my father way back when, when he said, "Hey, that's really nice. You should get it framed." (Kicks self in butt.) Anyway, below is the top of the display. The bottom instructed to place 1 cent in the slot.



BTW - There's some authorized reprints post-1966, and they state as such on the card. If you start to collect them, beware of some 1990 unauthorized reprints of 1940-50's players. They have no collector value (p. 150 of thee 2007 SCD.)


Anyway, still waiting for Adam W. to chime in here.

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Posted By: Anson Lytle

Exhibits offer some of the only action photos for the time. Additionally, many HOFers rookie cards appear in Exhibit format.

I agree with the above post. There are a lot of the post-47' exhibits running around. However, there are a lot less pre-war exhibits out there. The size may be a concern but perception changes over time. Not all that long ago, caramels were the redheaded stepchild of vintage cards.

I would guess that exhibits of HOF rookies, WWII era types, and rare variations will take off eventually.

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Posted By: Dan Bretta

There are also counterfeit cards of the later exhibit cards...I got a few in a lot I won from a Hunt's auction in May. They are very easy to tell from the real ones if you are familiar with them.

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Posted By: Alan Elefson

Hi-
I know there are folks with much more knowledge regarding exhibits who can speak to this, but I always believed them to be relatively affordable for the following reasons.
1. They were plentiful at the time of issuance.
2. Some collectors do not refer to these as "cards" and thus do not collect them (I disagree, but I believe it affects their value to some degree).
3. I believe I remember reading that one dealer/collector was attempting to corner the market on Exhibit cards in the late 1980s/early 1990s, buying many of them for pennies or less from flea market dealers happy to unload there piles. I could be wrong about the this, but I thought I remembered reading about this at the time.
If number 3 is true, I also have not heard of a massive sell off regarding Exhibit cards since, but I have flitted in and out of the hobby between then and now.
4. I believe many exist in grades that a grading company would deem above a 6, however most folks would not find it profitable to have them graded (low value).
Once again, I am not an expert on these, so please take my opinions as you wish.
Alan Elefson

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Posted By: Dan Lundrigan

I am currently working on putting together a complete run of cards from the salutation series and the 47-66 Exhibits.I hesitate to call them a "set" since images were carried over from year to year.You can get a lot of bang for your buck with hall of famers and other star players that would cost an arm and a leg in other issues.I hope prices remain low until I am finished getting the ones I need!

Here is one of my latest pickups,another one just ended tonight on the Bay did anyone here pick it up?

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Posted By: Scott

I started collecting exhibits about 2 years ago. I really like the big photos on the cards and felt they were a good value for the money. As has been mentioned finding the 1921-1938 cards are a lot harder than the 1939-1966 versions.

As far as PSA pop reports, when I started collecting them there had only been 250ish 1947-66 exhibits graded, two years later they are now at 2500+. Thats a huge amount in the last two years. Back then NM raw singles were easy to pick up in the $3-5 range, these days seems like $10 is about the norm and expect a lot more competition for them. Only in the last year have I seen some of the high grade PSA 8+ non hofer singles selling in the $100 range, I have a feeling at these dollars we will see a lot more graded. I have done very well selling my PSA 5-7 duds on ebay. I guess I feel like there is a lot more exhibits sets raw just waiting for the right price to come to market.

I was one of the underbidders on the Saluatition Gerhig, I was really surprised it ended up going for $988 in that condition. I bid on a couple of the other saluatitions but didnt have much luck.

Scott

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Posted By: boxingcardman

http://imageevent.com/exhibitman/interestingexhibitcards