 | 1.
Boxing Strip Card Gallery I will be updating this section regularly so please check back often. Please also check my boxing cards for sale page by using the scroll bar above.
Strip cards were issued in the 1920s as a cheap collectible for kids. Issued in strips of 10 or so or sheets of up to 25 cards, they were meant to be cut apart by the kiddies and played with. Since they are usually on cheap paper stock and were toys, they are typically found in rotten condiion. The low quality of the product also leads to many variations and errors in the finished cards.
What is below is a gallery of various strip card types. |
| 15177 Visits
78 Images
Shared Album | |
|
 | 2.
Boxing Cards For Trade And Sale (July 6, 2005)I will be updating this section regularly with cards and other items I am willing to trade or sell. Please also check my baseball and other cards for sale page, by using the scroll bar above.
If you want an item you see here, please email me at warshawlaw@sbcglobal.net. I will check availability and respond with purchase instructions. I accept checks, money orders, cash (of course). No paypal on cards; sorry. Backs are clean [no marks or damage] unless otherwise noted.
All items are shipped priority mail (USA) for $4.80 (I do not mark up for handling, nor do I charge for packaging). I will jam as many items as I can into a 2# flat rate envelope for you, to cut your shipping costs to the bone. Where an item is designated "postpaid" it means I will pay regular mail postage in an envelope, padded mailer or small box, as appropriate. Insurance is extra at USPS rates. If you decide to buy an item without shipping insurance, it ships entirely at your risk of loss. Please ask all questions in advance and ask for more scans if you are unsure of something because this is not Sears and I do not take returns. Transactions are governed by CA law and deemed performed in Burbank, CA; all disputes are to be resolved in the Los Angeles Superior Court in Burbank, CA. Certificates of authenticity will be issued when required by CA law and may be passed through to you from original autograph issuers. |
| 27783 Visits
19 Images
Shared Album | |
|
 | 3.
Baseball Cards And Other Cards For Sale (May 12, 2006)I will be updating this section regularly so please check back often. Please also check my boxing cards for sale page by using the scroll bar above.
If you want an item you see here, please email me at warshawlaw@sbcglobal.net. I will check availability and respond with purchase instructions. I accept checks, money orders, cash (of course) and paypal payments (shipped to verified addresses; note that paypal paid items must be shipped priority mail with delivery confirmation).
All items are shipped priority mail (USA) for $4.80 (I do not mark up for handling, nor do I charge for packaging). I will jam as many items as I can into a 2# flat rate envelope for you, to cut your shipping costs to the bone. Where an item is designated "postpaid" it means I will pay regular mail postage in an envelope, padded mailer or small box, as appropriate. Insurance is extra at USPS rates. If you decide to buy an item without shipping insurance, it ships entirely at your risk of loss. Please ask all questions in advance and ask for more scans if you are unsure of something because this is not Sears and I do not take returns. Transactions are governed by CA law and deemed performed in Burbank, CA; all disputes are to be resolved in the Los Angeles Superior Court in Burbank, CA. Certificates of authenticity will be issued when required by CA law and may be passed through to you from original autograph issuers. |
| 8567 Visits
16 Images
Shared Album | |
|
 | 4.
Interesting Exhibit Cards Without a doubt the most important issuer of sports cards was the Chicago-based Exhibit Supply Company. Beginning with its inaugural issue of 1921 and continuing until about 1971 when its last cards were printed, the Exhibit Supply Company, or “ESCO” as its diamond-shaped logo said, was the unparalleled card manufacturer/chronicler of athletics.
ESCO began its foray into sports cards in 1921, but it by no means was even primarily a sports card maker. Indeed, the variety and number of issues by ESCO is rivaled only by the American Tobacco Company. Every conceivable legitimate subject of popular culture, from movie stars to athletes to strippers, were depicted on Exhibit cards. Over its 50-year history ESCO made cards of Mack Sennett Studio comedians, western stars, movie and television stars, athletes from every major sport, fighter jets, the Mercury astronauts, jokes, fortunes, Las Vegas showgirls and even Benito Mussolini (really), to name only a smattering of its subjects. We are not likely to ever know precisely how many different cards were issued by ESCO; we can make some rough assessments based on ESCO advertising from the period. ESCO advertised to arcade owners that it released a new set of cards every 60 days. Figuring 48 cards per issue (since 32 was minimum but there were many issues of 64 and 128 cards), six issues per year, for a 50 year period, ESCO is likely to have issued in excess of 14,000 cards.
The method of distribution of Exhibit cards was a unique product of the first half of the 20th century. Until the period after World War II, Americans did not have the incredible variety of home-delivered amusements that we enjoy today. Imagine a world without television, video, the Internet or other electronic in-home media. Only radio existed, and then not until the 1920’s. When they wanted something to do, people left their homes for bars, movie theatres, boardwalks and arcades. ESCO manufactured amusement machines for those places: fortune tellers, prize machines, scales and so forth. Its major development, from our perspective, was the card dispensing machine. Exhibit cards were the first nationally distributed sports card product sold without any ancillary uses or purposes. The cards were not for advertising nor were they product premiums. They themselves were the product. A store or arcade owner purchased an ESCO vending machine and ESCO sold them refill products for the machines. ESCO made its real money on the refill orders, not on the machines. The cards were dispensed for a penny (later, a nickel or dime) to the patron of the store or arcade. ESCO sold refill cards direct to vendors, although in the 1960’s the company did package its cards into celluloid wrappers for direct sales to consumers (the fact that the company was out of business only a few years after trying direct sales of card packs is proof of the effectiveness of the strategy). As you can imagine, the vending machines are themselves highly desirable collectible items and routinely sell for hundreds of dollars. The advertising pieces that went with the machines likewise sell briskly, especially when they depict sports stars.
I start our tour of these unique cards with several baseball related issues. I then move through various cards of interest with examples of many of the interesting sets in the various realms of Exhibit card collecting. I will periodically add new and interesting cards of all sports and nonsport subjects as they become available to me, so please check back regularly.
If you wish to contact me about cards you've seen in my albums, please sign the guestbook--your comments will be forwarded to me. I am always looking for collections to purchase. |
| 16756 Visits
260 Images
Shared Album | |
|
 | 5.
Boxing Cards (July 2, 2005)Welcome to my card gallery! Please be sure to visit my web site at www.americasgreatboxingcards.com if you haven't already.
Navigation: Please use the scroll bar above to view the other pages. I hope you will find them informative and interesting.
If you would like more information about my boxing card encyclopedia "America's Great Boxing Cards", please go to www.americasgreatboxingcards.com. In the years since its 1st publication my book has become the reference on boxing cards. The descriptions below are short excerpts from the book, which also provides actual prices from auctions and sales on thousands of boxing cards, hundreds of images, and checklists of sets that had never been studied methodically before. Also below are card galleries of various issues, which I am providing for everyone's easy reference.
I will try to make the gallery as close to chronological as I can.
And in answer to a question I frequently get, no, the cards here are not for sale. This is a museum page dedicated to public education; I don't even own many of them. Wish I did. If you are interested in buying boxing cards please use the menu bar at the top to go to the boxing cards for sale page. |
| 54646 Visits
235 Images
Shared Album | |
|
 | 6.
Frank "Lefty" O'Doul (June 18, 2005)| Frank "Lefty" O'Doul is the greatest eligible position player not in the Hall of Fame. Over 970 games (30 shy of the 1,000 used for official records) from 1919 to 1934, Lefty averaged .349, winning two batting championships and setting the NL record for most hits in a season, which still stands. Not in any way a "homer" like Chuck Klein (whose numbers were greatly aided by playing in a small park in Philly), Lefty hit .352 at home and .347 on the road, proving he belongs among the elite hitters in history. After his days in the majors ended, he returned to the Pacific Coast League, where he was the longtime manager of the San Francisco Seals and later the San Diego and Seattle teams. He had a restaurant in San Francisco and was a bon vivant and man about town. Lefty was instrumental in organizing Japanese baseball, whose premiere team, the Giants, was named in his honor. Lefty is one of only 3 Americans in the Japanese baseball hall of fame. There are a number of rather rare Japanese cards of him, one of which is shown below. He is also one of the few players to have played for the Yankees, Dodgers and Giants while all 3 were in New York City. Lefty died on December 7, 1969. His epitaph reads "He was here at a good time and had a good time while he was here." |
| 20059 Visits
42 Images
Shared Album | |
|
 | 7.
Freaks and Geeks (June 25, 2005)| This is a collection of printing and cutting errors. The process of making cards has always been a complex one with many opportunities for mistakes along the way. |
| 21647 Visits
51 Images
Shared Album | |
|
 | 8.
Oh Boy Gum (Goudey) cards (June 25, 2005)These cards must be very rare because no one I've asked about them had ever heard of them and I asked a number of non-sports dealers. I acquired some because I liked them; they remind me of the Exhibit cards that I love to collect. They are postcard sized and blank backed. Images in the set appear to be drawn from 1928-1929 films plus several of Tom Mix's earlier films. The American Card Catalog designation for the issue is E282.
Since creating this page I've learned that there are at least 30 different cards and that one of them features Jack Dempsey from one of his films. |
| 11922 Visits
21 Images
Shared Album | |
| |
