Pre-War Cards a Focal Point in Baseball Hall of Fame Shoebox Treasures Exhibit

Posted on May 27, 2019 by Pre-War Cards

The new Shoebox Treasures baseball cards exhibit at the Hall of Fame includes plenty of early cards

The Baseball Hall of Fame opened its Shoebox Treasures exhibit over the weekend. And, as expected, collectors of pre-war cards won’t be disappointed with a good amount of cardboard from that era.

The top card on display is, well, the top card in the hobby. Featured at the exhibit is a T206 card of Honus Wagner. Another of the T206 rarities is also there with Ken Kendrick’s Eddie Plank. But there’s plenty more here, too.

The 1933 Goudey shortprinted card of Nap Lajoie is found in the exhibit. But this is no ordinary copy of the card that is already one of the most famous in the entire hobby. The Shoebox Treasures exhibit includes a card that was signed by Lajoie, dated to 1936. A Babe Ruth M101 Sporting News rookie card is also on display.

One of the rarer cards at the exhibit is a 1923 Maple Crispette card of Casey Stengel. I recently wrote about this card and, according to the Hall of Fame, it’s actually the only known copy.

Oh, and this copy of an early Peck & Snyder trade card doesn’t hurt, either.

In addition to the cards, collectors will have a chance to make some custom cards of themselves. Beckett grader Andy Broome did just that at the event, taking advantage of a slick T205 design.

As I said at the time this was announced, this sort of thing is great. I’m surprised it’s taken this long, to be honest, given the popularity of baseball cards. The exhibit will give collectors yet another reason to head to Cooperstown.