Need Advice on 1927 Rinkeydink Stamps

[oldrighty35]

OK......I'm a newbie and not real good at posting threads, so please spare me.
I have a shot at a complete set of 1927 Rinkeydink Baseball stamps tomorrow. It has been difficult finding answers since this set is pretty rare.
Here's my dilemma: The set of 10 stamps is there, along with 10 Winnie Winkles. The problem is, the stamps were glued to a piece of paper so the backside is not visible now. My question is, did that completely destroy the value or is it still worth something? If so, can I get a ballpark figure if they are in otherwise VG condition?
I would appreciate a response as the sale is tomorrow.
Help this newbie...please. Thanks

[glchen]

Rinkeydink stamps are basically cutouts from a newspaper. Therefore, the back of the "stamp" is basically just the other side of the newspaper, and doesn't really add anything to the stamp. I've attached the two versions (green and yellow backgrounds) of the Babe Ruth's that I have from this set including their back, so you can compare. As you can see, the back is just a random portion of a newspaper. Since the stamp is newspaper stock, you cannot soak it to remove the paper that it is glued to, otherwise, the stamp/newspaper will basically just dissolve in the water. I think there is still decent value to the stamp even if it's glued to a paper. You can probably still get one of the TPG's to encapsulate them (if needed) w/ the Authentic/Altered qualifier. The set has Ruth, Cobb, and other HOFer's. I would guess that the Ruth by itself is probably worth ~$200. The others would be worth less than that, depending on the player.

[oldrighty35]

Thanks, glchen. That really helps. They are asking $300 for the complete set with every card glued to a separate sheet of paper and placed in a booklet. I might offer a bit less since they need to be graded. I don't have a membership with PSA, so I'll see what that would cost.
Thanks again for your help.
If anyone knows someone who owns any of these that have been glued, I'd love to hear from you.

[BobC]

That is a pretty obscure set and not one that most collector's take to since as Gary pointed out, they are merely cut-outs from the newspaper. Many don't consider them as cards as such. However, seeing as how they are nothing more than newspaper print, they are much more fragile than cards from the same period and as such, lucky to have survived as long as they have. I think you see most examples out there, of the very few that do ever come up for sale, survived because they were glued into a scrapbook at some point. So as Gary pointed out, I don't think you'll see a huge difference in value from a Rinkydink stamp that was pasted in a scrap book and one that was not.

Also, one interesting thing from Gary's posting of the two different versions of the Rinkydink stamps he has of Ruth is that you can also see they came in two different sizes. I believe that when you look at the listing for these in the big Sports Collectors - Standard Catalog, they only list these stamps as being one size, about 1-1/4" x 1-1/2". I'm not aware of any difference in rarity or value due to the size, and don't really think it effects the pricing much, if any, for any individual player. Just out of curiosity, are the stamps you're looking at all the same size? Being all of one size would probably be a little better for display purposes.

As Gary mentioned, there are 10 different players represented in the set, all HOFers. Along with Ruth it includes the likes of Cobb, Johnson and Speaker, amongst the rest. In good condition I think Gary's estimate for a Rinkydink stamp of Ruth is in the ballpark. That being the case, I would guess a comparable condition Cobb would be in the $150 range, with the remaining HOFers anywhere from about $60 to $100 each. For top price you would probably want whoever cut the stamp out to have not trimmed the edges and leave plenty of border around the stamp itself. I actually have a complete set of the stamps but, not all of one size. Also, some are pasted onto a scrapbook page while some are not. I got them at different times from different sources. Still, they are pretty rare to find and individual Rinkydink stamps don't come up for sale that often, let alone the entire set all at once.

Here's a couple I picked up at the National in Atlantic City last year. On these you can see what I mean about someone doing a not so great job of cutting them out of the paper. Still, if you can get the whole set at once for a decent price, I think it is a great pickup. Good luck.

BobC

[oldrighty35]

Thanks for the added info, Bob. These are supposedly all the same size. Here's a picture of the only stamp they have shown of the ten:
257473

[oldrighty35]

Bob, wouldn't the extra paper beyond the border be a plus? Seems like yours could be trimmed to perfection. Maybe I'm way off, but it seems logical.
The photo I attached looks to be white background. I have heard red, green and yellow.

[oldrighty35]

Well, duh! You already addressed leaving extra paper around the edges, Bob. Looks like the ones I can get are already trimmed close.
257474

[BobC]

Not a bad looking Cobb. I think the background color on it is yellow though, not white. Is that just a scan you got from the seller? if so, it just seems a bit off in the actual color and a washed out yellow that almost looks white. I would bet that in person it is definitely a yellow background.

If all the Rinkydink stamps are pasted in that same book like the Cobb, they look to be pretty nice. And whomever did it seems to have paid a little attention to how they cut the Cobb out and tried to get the full stamp. Hopefully for you the rest of the stamps were treated similarly and cut out with some care.

BobC

[BobC]

By the way, that book the stamp is pasted in appears to be an old fashioned autograph book and not just a scrap book. You can tell from the size of the pages, based on the dimensions of the Cobb stamp, that this isn't a full sized page like you would normally expect to see in a scrap book. Have you had a chance to see what else may be in this scrap/autograph book besides the Rinkydink stamps, if anything? Should be interesting. Good luck, have you decided to pull the trigger on the acquisition?

BobC

[oldrighty35]

They advertised the 10 set baseball stamps and 10 Winnie Winkles (not sure if there's any value in those). Beyond that, I don't think there's more.
So $300 seems to be a good deal? If so, I'll try to grab it early today.

[oldrighty35]

Here's the only other photo they submitted. It tells of how they would print the stamps in sets of ten. That might be of interest to collectors.
257503

[Leon]

They advertised the 10 set baseball stamps and 10 Winnie Winkles (not sure if there's any value in those). Beyond that, I don't think there's more.
So $300 seems to be a good deal? If so, I'll try to grab it early today.

You won't get rich but it's not a bad buy, imo. I used to own the full newspapers of the whole set. A few years ago I saw another full set in full newspapers walk into the National. Good luck!!

[oldrighty35]

Thanks for all the advice I got here. I am heading out right now, hoping it's still there. Fingers crossed.
Glad I found this site as getting info was pretty difficult on this set. You guys really helped.

[BobC]

If all the Rinkydink stamps are pasted into that one book you're showing, I would leave them as is and not try to take them out, separate the pages, or anything else. I think the complete book with the items pasted in it that relate to the set adds to the overall story and collectability. Maybe not the easiest or greatest way to then display them but, I would leave them as is to also show how these were originally collected. Also, assuming the rest of the stamps are in similar condition to the Cobb stamp you had already shown us, I would agree with Leon that $300 isn't a bad price for the entire set like this. Good pick-up.

BobC