Negro League Broadside - help needed
 

Is this legit? Any idea on value if it is?
Thanks.

Looks good..
 

I am not expert. Looks like you have another one? Interested in selling one (when you have the info etc.)? chris

Richard:

E-mail sent.

Thanks,

Phil Garry

Guys,,, I don't own this now, it is being offered to me.
I don't know if it is legit or not and I don't know the value.
Any clues there would be appreciated.

Richard-
I too am not an expert, but it also looks good to me (although it is impossible to tell without it in hand). One reason I think it looks good is that I have never seen another. Another reason is that I found a similar age baseball broadside (with a large blank area that was never filled in like yours) several years ago, and it was definitely period. It had similar aging spots as well. That is the best I can offer without holding the item and learning about its history of possession from the current owner (e.g. if this was an antique shop "find" I would be more suspicious than if it had been in the owner's family for 60 plus years). If it is real, I hope you can acquire it at a fair price. It looks really cool!
Alan Elefson
aelefson@hotmail.com

A quick check on the Nashville Elite Giants on the NLBPA website says that the team moved to Columbus after the 1934 season. In the lower left corner, the windowcard notes that the Philadelphia Stars were the 1934 Champions of the league.

Seems to me it's like a phantom world series ticket: it might be real--it might be from the period...but there was never the reality of a 1935 season to make it legitimate. An overeager printer, perhaps...but that would explain why they are "stock" sheets without any detailed game or schedule info.

From my perspective, however, I would think a forger would not go to the trouble of creating these for a team that didn't exist...and if they did, why would they do it with no game info printed? You could make the case that you aren't breaking the law by producing a fantasy piece...but if you were deliverately doing that, why leave it half-printed?

One other thought...
 

There's a notation that they were printed in Pittsburgh. I was in Nashville last week with my son and visited Hatch Show Print, a famous print shop that has produced windowcards like this since 1879. They are still in business. If it was truly a local production for the Nashville club, I would be shocked if they went out of town for printing in 1934 (depths of the depression) because of the extra shipping costs alone.

Perhaps the Negro League itself ordered stock posters in one large print run for all the teams, simply changing the team name at the top of the poster during the run. If that were true...and it might be...it seems that we would have seen this style before (I assume the Nashville team is pictured along with the other teams on the borders).

I know that only muddies the water a bit more...but I didn't want to let it pass without bringing it up.

James,

Can you use a blacklight on the paper?

Jim - I assume you meant Richard and not James,, but I don't own this yet. I received a digital pic and am trying to determine if I should try to buy it.

Sorry Richard. Brain freeze, I guess.

As much as you can tell from a picture, they (two of them at least) look real. They would have been printed up, in quantity, and the dates and particulars on specific games could have been written in after. But as Alan said, I don't think you'll know until it's in your hands.

There is only one broadside.

Broadside
 

There is only one? In the photo, it looks like you can see a portion of a 2nd one on the right hand side of the photo, and at the bottom right corner, you can see a bit of what looks like a 3rd one.

You may be right, but I was offered a broadside, and it seemed like the seller only referred to one.

Great Item
 

The same type of broadside sold in the 2004 Robert Edward's auction for $2300. They didn't note the team move. I would agree with previous posts that it may have been made before the team moved- in fact that may be why some survived in unused form. I have posted this before but here is a broadside a picked up a few months back- the back has the game cost numbers showing how the team budgets were so tight that unused broadsides were used as scrap paper for the teams

It's real. There must have been a small find of these as they first turned up about 10 years ago. Worth $2000-3000 depending on condition.

Scott