1936 Four-on-One Exhibits Set and Checklist

Posted on August 27, 2016 by Pre-War Cards

‘It’s In The Details’

Title	W463 Exhibits
Year	1936
Size	3 3/8″ x 5 3/8″
Images	Blue/Gray or Green Ink
Type	Exhibit
Number in Set	16

1936 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 1936 Exhibit card set features cards with either a blueish-gray ink color or a light green color against a white background. The blue-gray color is often referred to as a light blue but the cards typically look more like a pure black and white. The most distinguishing characteristic for the 1936 cards is that, for the first time, a small line of ‘PTD. IN U.S.A.’ is added to the bottom of each card. The last three years of the Four-on-One Exhibit cards (1936, 1937, and 1938) are the only ones in this series to include that type of text. The 1938 cards actually say ‘Made in U.S.A.’ instead.

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 a card — this was a change from the first few years in this series when each team had two cards. All of the 1936 Exhibit cards have blank 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.

Many of the same players and pictures were kept in this set from the 1935 issue. Notably, the Tigers card did not change in representation with all four players from the 1935 card (Mickey Cochcrane, Charlie Gehringer, Goose Goslin, and Schoolboy Rowe) all returning for the 1936 card. Some other cards replaced only a single player but the Tigers are the only team to have the exact same players as the year before.

One note is that this is the first of the Four-on-One Exhibit card sets where Babe Ruth did not appear as 1935 was his last year as an active major leaguer. Bill Urbanski, the player that was included on the Braves’ 1934 card and removed for Ruth, returned in this 1936 set.

The Yankees also continued their tradition of having a card with four Hall of Famers on it. Lou Gehrig, Lefty Gomez, and Tony Lazzeri were joined by fellow Hall of Famer Red Ruffing, who replaced Bill Dickey from the 1935 card.