Player Discs from 1911 or 1913 Inside Baseball Tin Game

[Arlene Wall]

Hello-I am new to this group, so not sure about protocols....
I have 17 of the original Player Discs from a 1911 or 1913 INSIDE BASEBALL tin litho game. There are 17 discs, all in great condition. There are 9 NL/New York discs, and 8 AL/Philadelphia discs. I want to sell them, but not sure if people would want them listed in one lot or as individual items.
I would appreciate any feedback.

[Leon]

Hi Arlene
Welcome to the forum. You have the correct protocol and wish I could help on those. There is a good chance someone will know more than you want to, about them. :) Every now and then the group is stumped but not often.

Edited to add that, as you might know, we have sections for all buying, selling and trading....for future reference. And this question was fine here anyway. Thanks...

[Arlene Wall]

Thank you, Leon. I would appreciate if you could let me know how to post these in the Selling Section. thanks

[Leon]

Thank you, Leon. I would appreciate if you could let me know how to post these in the Selling Section. thanks

From the Red, left icon on the upper part of the screen going to the right, the second/next icon(section) is the Buy/Sell/Trade section. It is linked below too. The section 3rd from the top would be appropriate though it could be argued they could go in a few sections. Good luck..

http://www.net54baseball.com/forumdisplay.php?f=3

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[swarmee]

I would recommend selling these individually. Many collectors focus on a specific player from back then, or are "type" collectors and try to get one example of each set. I think the sum of the parts is almost always worth more than the complete set as well.

[BobC]

I believe those are from a 1913 or later version of the "Inside the Game" tin lithograph game, and were representative of the two teams that had recently played each other in the World Series, the NY Giants and Philadelphia A's. There were actually 10 players pieces/discs for each team that were included as part of the game. There was 1 for each position player, and then 2 pitchers, one lefty and one righty. Here is a scan of all 20 pieces/discs that originally came with the game so you can see which ones you may be missing.

The game itself is marked that it was patented in 1911, and this is likely why your confusion if this was from 1911 or 1913. Also, oddly enough, the same two teams, the Giants and Athletics, played for the World Series in both 1911 and again in 1913, thus adding more confusion as to when this game version was actually produced and issued. The best giveaway that the pieces/discs you have are NOT from 1911 is that some of the players listed were not on either of these teams in 1911. They include a piece/disc for Joe Bush of the Athletics but, Bush didn't join the Athletics until 1912 so he wasn't part of the 1911 World Series. Wally Schang was also not with the A's in 1911 either. However, both Bush and Schang were on the 1913 A's roster. Now on the Giants side, neither Bescher nor Fletcher were on the 1911 NY roster either. And while Fletcher was then on the 1913 roster, Bob Bescher was not. In fact, Bescher was only with the Giants for one single season, 1914, which would seem to indicate that this game with these pieces wasn't actually issued until at the earliest, sometime in 1914 then to possibly commemorate the prior year's World Series between these two teams in 1913.

As far as how best to sell these, someone else mentioned collectors looking for certain players may want to go after a particular individual, and thus the suggestion to sell these by the piece. However, there really is no special information on these pieces/discs other than the players last name, position, team and league. Because of the lack of any additional information, and nothing art worthy or otherwise eye-catching, I can see the HOFers maybe getting some interest but, for the common players, not really much, if any. Someone will pay something for them though as they are still fairly rare to find nowadays, and may be attractive to some oddball/type collectors. They aren't cards though and IMO that also goes against you selling the common players for very much if you do try to sell them one by one. I believe your best bet would be to find someone who actually has the game and is missing the pieces/discs to it and needs these. Your problem is you don't have the complete set of pieces and therefore, someone who is just missing certain ones will only want to buy the ones they need, leaving you with the rest. That may make it even tougher to sell the remaining ones for a decent amount, IMO, unless it is a HOFer as I mentioned earlier.

Another thought would be to see if you could pick up one of the metal game boards and spinner that these discs/pieces originally came with, and then try to bundle them for a better price yourself. Again, you're still missing some pieces/discs from both teams which works against you but, at least that way a buyer could display the game board and most of the players pieces/discs together. Finding a game board and spinner by itself though may not be that easy either. If you do search for the game board and spinner online though, it may give you a lead to someone who may want to get the pieces/discs you have so they could then include them with the game board they are trying to sell. That may be one of the best ways to directly find someone who would be interested in most or all of the pieces/discs.

Fortunately, it looks like you have all the big name HOFers, and are only missing Fletcher from the Giants, and Murphy and Barry from the Athletics. I personally find these to be real neat but, they are more related to games than cards so you may also want to touch base with any forums/groups that deal with old games as well. Good luck on whatever you decide to do with these.

[Butch7999]

BobC is correct -- all this info is known to the tiny community of "game guys," but it was good to put the info
out there for the rest of the collecting world, so thanks, BobC, for that.

All we'd add is that the game is actually titled "Inside" Base Ball. It was made in two editions (one about 17 3/4" square,
the other just under 13" square) by The Popular Games Co. The patent does date to 1911, and to an earlier version
of the game produced by the Inside Base Ball Co. Those player discs are similar, but are center punched and
sport the names of Boston Braves and Washington Senators players from 1910-11.

[BobC]

Thanks Butch, appreciate the comments.

I figured I may as well add an image of the actual game board and spinner. Stole this one off this off the internet, not a scan of the one that I actually own. Neat game board and graphics, all metal with a rally large and unusual 4-pointed spinner that takes up a good chunk of the game board. You can see where there are the 9 circular spots on either side of what would be considered the 1st and 3rd base lines to place your player pieces/discs to be used in the game. Kind of like where everyone would be in a dugout just like at a real game. Thought that was a neat idea.

By the way, the image I used was from a completed Ebay sale of the game back on 3/18/16. The description showed that only 16 of the 20 player pieces/discs were still included with the game, and no box. As a point of reference for the OP, it went for $425.00 back then so, there is some value to the game and the pieces/discs. Though the four main HOF player pieces/discs were apparently included with the sale, i still think the game itself, with the spinner, made up the major portion of the value. What is interesting is that in looking at what 4 player pieces/discs were missing from this earlier game sold on Ebay, the OP has all four them, Barry, Fletcher, McInnis and Merkle, all common players. That is why I said that if somehow the OP could get in touch with someone who purchased the game, and is missing player pieces/discs that she's looking to sell, that would probably be a great way to find a buyer willing to maybe pay a little extra for at least some of your pieces. As an FYI, the Ebay item number for this earlier sale is 201524206749. I have no idea if there would be any way to use that to get a hold of the buyer. Seller's Ebay ID is 8whiteorchids. Maybe you could try getting through to them to see if you could find out how to contact the buyer. I imagine that if they still had the game and you got a hold of them offering to sell them the four missing player pieces/discs that they didn't have, they might be really appreciative. Good luck!

[Leon]

I believe those are from a 1913 or later version of the "Inside the Game" tin lithograph game, and were representative of the two teams that had recently played each other in the World Series, the NY Giants and Philadelphia A's. There were actually 10 players pieces/discs for each team that were included as part of the game. There was 1 for each position player, and then 2 pitchers, one lefty and one righty. Here is a scan of all 20 pieces/discs that originally came with the game so you can see which ones you may be missing.

The game itself is marked that it was patented in 1911, and this is likely why your confusion if this was from 1911 or 1913. Also, oddly enough, the same two teams, the Giants and Athletics, played for the World Series in both 1911 and again in 1913, thus adding more confusion as to when this game version was actually produced and issued. The best giveaway that the pieces/discs you have are NOT from 1911 is that some of the players listed were not on either of these teams in 1911. They include a piece/disc for Joe Bush of the Athletics but, Bush didn't join the Athletics until 1912 so he wasn't part of the 1911 World Series. Wally Schang was also not with the A's in 1911 either. However, both Bush and Schang were on the 1913 A's roster. Now on the Giants side, neither Bescher nor Fletcher were on the 1911 NY roster either. And while Fletcher was then on the 1913 roster, Bob Bescher was not. In fact, Bescher was only with the Giants for one single season, 1914, which would seem to indicate that this game with these pieces wasn't actually issued until at the earliest, sometime in 1914 then to possibly commemorate the prior year's World Series between these two teams in 1913.

As far as how best to sell these, someone else mentioned collectors looking for certain players may want to go after a particular individual, and thus the suggestion to sell these by the piece. However, there really is no special information on these pieces/discs other than the players last name, position, team and league. Because of the lack of any additional information, and nothing art worthy or otherwise eye-catching, I can see the HOFers maybe getting some interest but, for the common players, not really much, if any. Someone will pay something for them though as they are still fairly rare to find nowadays, and may be attractive to some oddball/type collectors. They aren't cards though and IMO that also goes against you selling the common players for very much if you do try to sell them one by one. I believe your best bet would be to find someone who actually has the game and is missing the pieces/discs to it and needs these. Your problem is you don't have the complete set of pieces and therefore, someone who is just missing certain ones will only want to buy the ones they need, leaving you with the rest. That may make it even tougher to sell the remaining ones for a decent amount, IMO, unless it is a HOFer as I mentioned earlier.

Another thought would be to see if you could pick up one of the metal game boards and spinner that these discs/pieces originally came with, and then try to bundle them for a better price yourself. Again, you're still missing some pieces/discs from both teams which works against you but, at least that way a buyer could display the game board and most of the players pieces/discs together. Finding a game board and spinner by itself though may not be that easy either. If you do search for the game board and spinner online though, it may give you a lead to someone who may want to get the pieces/discs you have so they could then include them with the game board they are trying to sell. That may be one of the best ways to directly find someone who would be interested in most or all of the pieces/discs.

Fortunately, it looks like you have all the big name HOFers, and are only missing Fletcher from the Giants, and Murphy and Barry from the Athletics. I personally find these to be real neat but, they are more related to games than cards so you may also want to touch base with any forums/groups that deal with old games as well. Good luck on whatever you decide to do with these.


Great info!! Thanks

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