Early Exhibit Card Machine With Autographed Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig Exhibits

Here’s a nice mid-1920s wooden exhibit card machine with two little signed cards showing a 1928 Blue Series Babe Ruth and Grey Tint Lou Gehrig exhibit. Sotheby’s offered the item in their April 1994 Important Baseball Cards and Sports Memorabilia auction.

Here’s the lot’s full description:

Early Exhibit Card Machine with Autographed Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig Exhibits, mid 1920s wooden exhibit card machine made by Metropolitan Coin Machine Inc. of Brooklyn, N.Y., holds two autographed exhibits of Ruth and Gehrig, the Ruth exhibit is a 1928 blue tint series with the Babe in quotes, a strong bold black ink signature, the Gehrig is a 1926 grey tint exhibit with the signature in the back-ground, “Lou” is a bit light but the “Gehrig” is bold and clear, overall condition of both cards is excellent to mint, with minor corner wear, the machine itself has a glass front and has been refinished, lock and key back, blue lettering “Novelty Card Vendor,” height 13 inches, width 7 1/2 inches, and depth 7 inches, at least near mint condition, wooden exhibit card machines are very rare, very few have survived and the autographed exhibits displayed of Ruth and Gehrig just add to make it a top shelf collectible.

It’s not the exact same card (auto location), but REA sold a signed 1928 Babe Ruth Exhibit card for $5,875 in 2008; it would be just a touch (ok, A LOT) pricier at auction today.

Also, FWIW, I think the Gehrig exhibit might have been a 1928 release as well, but I’m no expert on pre-war exhibit cards.