Need Help Dating Vintage A's Ticket Stub
 

http://i792.photobucket.com/albums/y...pswf3c2lei.jpg

Was told it dates to August 30, 1929, which would make sense as the A's played the Red Sox that day and it was game 127 of the season. Just don't know if anyone knows what regular season A's tickets from 1929 look like.

Thanks for any help.

Tom C

I believe what you wee told is correct - looks right to me.

Having Thomas Shibe's signature on it, I don't think it's from 1929.

A few months ago there were two scrapbook pages of Athletics tickets sold on Ebay. One page had undated regular season tickets along with 1930 World Series tickets. Since they were displayed together, I'm assuming they were all from the same year and all were marked "C McGillicuddy, manager".

The second page had a similar group of tickets with 1931 World Series tickets. The regular season tickets on that page was a mix of McGillicuddy and Thomas Shibe examples which suggests that the first Thomas Shibe tickets are from 1931. The Shibe tickets also showed an increase in grandstand price from $1 to $1.10. Thomas Shibe was President of the Athletics until he died in early 1936 so I think your example dates between 1931 and 1935.

I found I saved the scans of the pages from Ebay.

Ed, possibly, I was just guessing since it seemed correct - but I don't think it's as definitive as you make it seem. The As didn't play Boston in game 127 of any of those years (if 127 is the game number). In the scrap book pages there are also no bleacher tickets for comparison. Also I think the price was always a $1.00 plus $0.10 tax. Seems more logical that it is 1929, but you could be right.

According to this NY Times article, the Federal amusement tax wasn't added until 1932:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/07/sp...pagewanted=all

Also Chris Counts had a hand dated 1929 ticket in the BST section to a preseason game between the Phillies and the Athletics. I know it's not a bleacher ticket but it shows Connie Mack's signature and no added tax.

Oh..that's great info. Good research. I guess the tax then may be key to dating this, in which case I guess it couldn't possibly be as early as 1929. Would explain why they stamped a new price on the ticket for the new tax. Ticket would have to be 1932 or later.

That is very helpful. Thanks so much.

I notice on the left side scrapbook page a pair of grandstand tickets. One says "American League Base Ball Club" and "Shibe Park" while the other says "American Base Ball Club Of Philadelphia" and "Greater Shibe Park". Do you think they would have tickets from the same year be that different? Either way, both predate my ticket...as you said....neither has the tax added whereas mine does.

Does the number on the ticket necessarily correspond with a game number? I have tended to think that it is more like an "event number", so any Negro League games or semi pro games or football games or whatever else would be part of the number. In which case coming up with a specific game could unfortunately be impossible.

Thanks again for the help!

Tom C

They expanded the seating in Shibe Park in the late 1920's so the team started calling it "Greater Shibe Park". I have a 1929 scorecard marked that way but it doesn't seem like they changed the wording on the tickets until a little later. It does look like the first Tom Shibe tickets were issued in 1932. I'm guessing the person who put together the scrapbook went to games in '32 and just glued them down with '31 stubs.

I think Tom is right about the numbers being event numbers. If you look at that Phillies/Athletics City Series ticket, it's marked 1 and it isn't a regular season game. Guessing it was the first game of the series but have to hit the newspaper archives to be sure. Has anyone ever tried to puzzle out the numbers? It must be a similar problem with other teams' tickets too.

Pat Geroni (Physedteacher25) was doing extensive research on undated Yankees ticket stubs. He may be able to shed some light on the use of event numbers. He may see this thread or PM him.

Interesting...this '27 ticket was posted in the "ticket collectors" thread, with a tax on it.

Attachment 198911

Also a good psa article on dating undated Yankees tickets was also posted in that thread.

Hi Tom,
Unfortunately, the number 127 on an early A's ticket has absolutely no bearing on the game number.
I've observed that the number and letter codes on these games appears to be completely random based on my experience of collecting baseball tickets for over 43 years .
It's doubtful that this ticket is from 1929, as the Bleacher ticket price of $.55 and printing font would probably indicate 1930 or later, FWIW

I hope this helps!