1931-32 Four-on-One Exhibit Set and Checklist

Posted on August 27, 2016 by Pre-War Cards

‘It’s In The Details’

Title	W463 Exhibits
Year	1931-32
Size	3 3/8″ x 5 3/8″
Images	Color Tints
Type	Exhibit
Number in Set	32

1931-32 Four-on-One Exhibit Set Overview

Eight different pre-war sets make up the W463 Exhibits issue. In addition to the pre-war era W463s (and the earlier W461s from 1921 through 1928), additional Exhibit card sets from the late 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s were also printed as well.

Exhibits are sometimes called postcards, although that isn’t really accurate since only some have postcard backings. Many Exhibit cards are blank-backed and some cards include a corner coupon printed on the back.

These are classified in the American Card Catalog as W-Cards, but they are not strip cards like other W-card issues.

Most Exhibits look fairly nice. However, almost all of the sets have plenty of typos and misspelled names. Players were also misidentified throughout the series.

Starting in 1929, Exhibit moved to a different design to feature four players on one card. All W463 classified cards have this same design with four players to a single card. Collectors should note that many of these cards have been cut up over the years. Thus, instead of having one large card with four pictures, they were left with four smaller individual cut ‘cards.’ That has also confused many collectors unfamiliar with W463s as to the origins of these new, smaller cut cards. While there is some value for these cut outs, the fully intact four-in-one cards, of course, are worth much more.

Specifically, the 1931-32 Exhibit card set features cards with a variety of tint colors. Shown here are two examples from the set.

Similar to the 1935 Goudey set, these cards do not merely contain random players. Instead, four players from the same team were used. Each of baseball’s 16 teams were featured on two different cards for a total of eight players represented per team. All of the 1931-32 Exhibit cards have coupon backs.

These cards included the name and team/league of the player pictured. As with past Exhibit sets, a dark ink was used when the print was over top of a lighter background and a light ink was used when the background was darker. Formatting is varied with some players having their full first/last names printed and others only having initials of their first and or middle name printed.

Cards do not include card numbers. All of the cards have a vertical layout.

As it was in the 1929-30 set, the most valuable card here is a Yankees edition featuring Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig.

Coupon Backs

The coupon backs are the biggest distinguishing factor between these cards and the 1929-30 cards.

The 1929-30 cards featured a postcard style of back. These, however, included an advertisement and coupon.

The back showed an Exhibit coupon in the lower right corner and those coupons could be clipped off and redeemed for prizes. In addition to the coupon, the back also listed the various prizes available. 50 coupons, for example, could be sent in for a trick pencil or a football rule book (among various other prizes. 100 coupons could be sent for a hunting knife, a referee whistle, or several other prizes. Many of the prizes were for gags or trick items, such as the trick pencil, a rubber dagger, a trick cigar, or other similarly annoying gifts.

Of note to collectors is that one of the prizes for 50 coupons that could be had was a ‘Lucky Pocket Piece’ of Babe Ruth, aviator Charles Lindbergh, or actor Tom Mix.

Coupons were to be mailed to the Exhibit Supply Company at their 4222 West Lake Street address in Chicago.

The coupon backs are perhaps part of the reason we see the ‘cut’ cards of players today. If a collector cut out the coupon, they may have been more inclined to cut out the remaining players instead of leaving the rest of the card intact with a large chunk of it missing (from the cut coupon).