VAN WILLIAMS ARCADE CARD Issue: / Year: 1950 Condition: FR/G This is a movie star card. Card is in good shape. The Exhibit Supply Company (ESCO) of Chicago issued Post Card sized, thick cards from the early 1900 through the 1960. Their cards were sold for a penny each in arcade machines. These cards were almost always black and white or some type of single color toned cards. They issued cards on a variety of subjects, but the most sought after cards feature movie stars, cowboys and boxers. The method of distribution of Arcade/Exhibit cards was unique in the first half of the 20th century. Until the period after World War 2, Americans did not have the incredible variety of home-delivered amusements that we find common today. Only radio provided home entertainment beginning in the 1920. When people wanted something to do, people left their homes for movie theaters, boardwalks, and arcades. Every town had annual fairs or carnivals that had arcade tents. ESCO manufactured amusement machines for those places: fortune telling machines, prize machines, scales, pin-balls, etc. It most historic development was the card dispensing machine. Exhibit cards were the first nationally distributed trading 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 carnival 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 arcade. ESCO sold refill cards direct to vendors. There was no permanent place where you could get these cards in most cities. Usually buyers had to wait for a carnival or fair to hit town to have access to the cards. This limited availability has made many of these cards quite scarce today and in recent years they have become very desirable collectors items. In the silent movie era many cards were issued with Post Card backs. Size of each card is about 3 1/4" x 5 1/2". Publisher: Sku: F1-03-0171 Sale Auction Terms and Shipping Handling sale Terms Winning Bidders By purchasing or bidding you agree to all terms of sale stated below. All purchases and winning bids are final. You will receive emails about your win, and package shipping information. Please provide your email address for this purpose. Our feedback system is automated and feedback will automatically be left for the winning bidder after feedback is left for us. Payment Payment is expected within 4 days of auction end. Payment in U.S. funds only. We accept methods other than PayPal. We accept other methods of payment than PayPal, contact us for details. Sales Tax Florida residents add 7% sales tax. Shipping Handling Terms The shipping and handling fee covers processing your item(s) both in and out of our warehouse, packing materials, consignment costs, and costs of transporting your item(s) to the post office, in addition to the postal fees. Since many items come from outside sources and incur consignment fees, we must impose this fee to continue to offer items at the lowest possible minimum bid. This allows us to offer the widest possible variety of material from many sources, while giving each bidder a chance to get the best available deal. We can combine shipping for multiple orders. Large/heavy items cost more than the standard rate to combine. Contact us first if you have any shipping questions. Shipment inside the USA: Buyer pays standard processing and delivery fee as indicated on the invoice. Priority, Express or other services are extra?please let us know and we will revise your invoice. Larger dollar items will require require a tracking number for security and safety. Shipment outside the US: Items listed in the Global Shipping Program will ship at the cost as displayed in the listing. This amount cannot be adjusted. For insurance reasons we must declare the actual value for the item(s) on all customs form, we will not declare a lower value on customs forms, by purchasing this item you are agreeing to this. Returns We accept returns within 14 days except for any professionally graded comic book. This includes CGC, PGX and CBCS graded comic books. Please be aware these items are NON RETURNABLE. No exceptions. Over 100,000 mail orders processed! Bid with confidence. I can sell items for you! Track Page Views With Auctiva's FREE Counter