Player Discs from 1911 or 1913 Inside Baseball Tin Game

[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.