Has anyone ever seen something like this? '38 Goudey
 

I work for SCP and a guy got in touch with this. He bought it at a local auction decades ago. I cannot find anything like it on the interwebs, nor has my boss at SCP. It's an original printing plate for a '38 4 in One. Last photo is of the card. Click on the image and it takes you to my Flickr page, where you can see other photos.

Please chime in if you have seen similar. Thanks.
[IMG]https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...5853b081_k.jpgIMG_20240508_183103 by Philip Golden, on Flickr[/IMG]

1935, and I'd be worried it was reverse engineered from a card since the plate seems to show corner wear as if it was going to print corner wear.

Is the size correct? Is it a thin aluminum sheet? Could also be from a newspaper. There have been a lot of them for sale over the years of different cards.

Here is the 1935 Goudey that shares the same image. Don't know enough about plates, but Scott made a good point that the plate shows the 'card' with rounded corners, which would make this an aftermarket type of product.

Brian (not my card...mine would have rounded corners)

How was it determined this is an authentic original plate?

I might give a dollar for that, if it included delivery...

Which color do you think that plate printed??? I don't think it matches up to any one color. If there were plates like that for the cards, don't you reckon that there would be a separate plate for each color, and that no one plate would s?

And the cards were printed in sheets, not as individual cards... does that little plate show signs of having been cut from a large plate??? Maybe it is a linotype plate, or part of one. I can't imagine they would have used aluminum. I guess it could be a plate made for an advertisement of some sort, depicting the card in blank and white...

And I don't think it is decades old. I think that's something someone made, either with intent of scamming someone, or if that wasn't the original intent it soon became the intent.

And, I could be wrong about it all. But it does not look right to me. Too many red flags.

I have no idea. Just something a guy sent my way to look at the photos for him. Evidently he bought it at auction quite a while ago

Like I mentioned, I dont know a thing and I do not believe the owner does either

Id like to see
 

Would love to see a professional printer slap some ink on that baby and let’s see what prints out….. could help answer some questions….

It's halftone all over, which the cards weren't.

Likely a newspaper or magazine piece. although most of those would have moved on from typography by the time cards became interesting enough to print.

Agreed, I think it's a printing block for a small newspaper or could even be a hobby piece for a newsletter. In high school in the late eighties we had the tools to makes these on hand and I had some cool ones since lost. It was all fun and games until one kid created plates for twenties...that caused some issues. :D

Who would have thunk it?

Yes, I am in agreement on printing block of some type. But I am not a print guy, per se'.
.

To play devil's advocate a bit here...

I have absolutely no clue what this is, but that questionable corner wear (with the obvious assumption that maybe the block was created from an actual old and worn card and isn't an original printing piece) could actually be naturally-occurring wear from the handling of whatever this item is over time.

There are a bunch of other dark areas on the faces and backgrounds where the surface has also been worn away/affected, so it's possibly 'normal.' Just think it's important to note this fact for the benefit of anyone who's investigating the piece.

No doubt the wear could be natural. In person, it would probably be easier to tell if it is contrived.

My offhand guess is it's vintage and was used for a publication like a newspaper magazine or book. Maybe an add.

That's a standard style of printing block from back then.

I've never seen one for a Goudey before, but sports themed printing blocks like this are found in the hobby.

Why would anybody go to the effort to make a block of the 4 players involved. Why not shoot for the Babe and the Rabbit?

This. The original cards were not half-tones (like Exhibit cards), so this isn't one of those plates.

My guess is that it is a plate made to illustrate a newspaper obituary or other article for one of the players depicted. Probably a zinc plate made in the postwar era. Lots of them have come out of newspaper archives over the years. I remember a big auction of sports figure plates about a decade ago. I bought a bunch of boxers.