Batter-Up cards
 

Hello all! I'm sure this has been discussed before, but I'm just really discovering these cards and am wondering about variations. I found a Frisch with a reddish hue (for lack of a better description) and a darker one (grayish?). Is one more rare than the other? Are there similar variations for other cards in the set?

Thanks for all your help!
Mike Eisenbath

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You might want to post this on the main page instead of the buy/sell/trade section. I think there are several previous threads about this as well that you can search for.

There are two very distinct series and variants in the set, and I have come to the conclusion that in reality, the cards should actually be considered as two entirely separate sets.

Only the low numbered series, cards 1 - 80, which were originally issued in 1934, can be found with the various color hues you're asking about. The high number series, cards 81 - 192 which came out later going into 1936, are predominantly all of the same brown/sepia or black/grayish colored hues. I was originally under the impression that the high number series cards only came in the brownish or blackish hues, but have been told that they do exist in the green and blue hues as well. As I don't really have any of these other high number series hues myself, and really never seen them, I'm assuming for the high number series these other hues are then somewhat rare, even among the high number series cards which are already considered rarer than the lower number series Batter-Up cards. Still not sure there is much of a premium, if any, paid for high number series Batter-Up cards in these other non-brown/black hues.

The earlier, lower series cards can be found in colors/hues of black/gray, brown/sepia, red/pinkish, blue, and green. For simplistic purposes, let's call them black, brown, red, blue and green. I am not really aware of any particular rarity of one color over another, and have never heard of a premium being paid for any particular color variant. In simply looking through my own cards though, the black, brown, and red hued versions seem to be the most prolific, with the blue and green versions in the minority. But again, I'm aware of no price premium paid or attributed to green or blue version cards. The high number series cards (81 - 192) are considered a bit rarer than their lower numbered counterparts, and typically do trade at a slight premium. I don't think you'd have much difficulty finding any particular card in either series though, as the Batter-Ups are usually easily found for sale on Ebay. They don't seem to show up as much in AH auctions, probably due to the fact there aren't any really big value cards in the set due to the lack of Ruth and Gehrig missing from it. To me, the highlights of the set are the Dizzy Dean and Moe Berg cards.

In further support of my contention that the low and high numbered series of these Batter-Up cards should actually be two different sets, not only are the two series of ptimarily some different colors/hues, with the high numbers apparently lacking any red hues cards , they are also two entirely different sizes, with the high number series cards all being slightly smaller than the low numbered series ones. The factors that continue to make people think they are all one set is mostly due to the continuous numbering of the cards from the low to the high series, and the additional fact that the rather unique design/style of these Batter-Up cards is continued from the lower to the higher numbered series. To me, the different colors, different sizes, and fact that the two series were apparently issued up to two years apart, overrides the continuous numbering counting as this being just one set. At the least, I think they should designate them somewhat separately as two different sets, such as R318-1 and R318-2, sort of like what they did with the white ad-backed and colored version S74 silks designated as S74-1 and S74-2. Just my opinion though.

Any ody want to buy a Hornsby? :)

Am I wrong?
 

I thought I remembered some of the players in the set being duplicated so I checked my old Beckett price guide..... right off the bat I see Cronin (#32 and 183) and Foxx ( #28 and 144) although I havent checked Old Cardboard to see if they are the same pose or not. Also Frisch (#33 and 173) plus Im sure more.... just information. Dickey (30 and 117) . Theres a bunch more IM sure....

update
 

Just checked Old Cardboard and at least the Cronin and Foxx are totally different poses. Does seem like a different set based on that although its the same format with a slightly different size. I would bet it was a second year extension of the original set with some changes and updates made by the same company. Kind of crazy that they changed the size also.

The high numbers are found With brown, black, blue and green tints.

Then I'm completely wrong, thanks for correcting me.

Great observation, and my bad for memory loss. LOL

Have corrected my original post for my errors. Thanks for reminding and correcting me.

Thank you for correcting me. I did look a little deeper into the Batter-Up cards I have and now see how some of the high number cards may be a bit more black/grayish than sepia/brownish. Still have no blue or green tints though, nor remember seeing any. I'm assuming that high number Batter-Up cards in blue and green tint must be very tough to find then. Is there a known premium for them in those two hues/colors, as I'm not aware of any?

Never heard of or met a collector into or trying to put together a master set of the Batter-Up cards in all the different possible hues/colors. Nor any idea if entirely possible. Would be a heck of a project though.

From my experience collecting these, the reds and greens are the hardest colors to find in the low numbers. But first, we need to distinguish the reds from the magentas. The magentas are reasonably common, but the reds — which are often confused with the magentas — have been tougher for me to find than even the greens. Making things even more confusing, I've seen some that fall somewhere between red and magenta. The blues seem fairly common.

Re: Batter-Up cards
 

The tints are far more subtle in the high series. You can see some examples of each in the CardTarget gallery.

http://www.cardtarget.com/sets/1550

I am also a proponent for regarding as two different sets.

My belief/theory is that the low series was entirely produced in 1934 and the high series was entirely produced in 1936. Despite hobby designation, therefore, I tend to regard as 1934 and 1936 rather than 1934-36.

Among the practical fallout is that I wouldn’t consider a high series card a RC for a player who already has a card in 1934 Goudey or the 1934/1935 releases of Diamond Stars.

Jason

Thank you so much for the information! I'm really sorry if I posted this in the wrong place ... didn't pay close enough attention. My mistake for sure.

I love so much the wealth of info and education available here. One of my collecting goals for 2023 is to learn about at lot of the vintage and pre-war sets that I occasionally see at a card show or see mentioned in a thread here.

So these are all considered Brown? Two are obvious but I thought the other two might be Septia? Thanks.

My red and magenta side by side. I think it's funny that for a set called Batter-Up that there are so few batting poses for the players.

Something that was not identified (as far as I can tell) until it was brought up on here multiple years back, is that there are two separate groups of color availability within the #1 to 80 grouping of Batter-Ups.

First off, 6 different colors are available in cards #1 through 40. I will identify them as I have always done (being that I was limited to smaller packs of Crayolas when growing up).

Black + White (no tint)
Sepia
Blue
Purple
Green
Red

Numbers 41 through 80 are only found in the following:

Black + White (no tint)
Sepia
Blue
Purple

I believe this is the main reason why the Red and Green tints are less commonly encountered, as a whole, in the 1 to 80 grouping, and thus are considered by some to be less common.

Here are the two threads that gradually identified, exposed, and revealed to the vintage collecting world this color availability split within the set:


The first thread, with pertinent color information starting with post #16:

https://www.net54baseball.com/showth...ghlight=batter

The follow up thread:

https://www.net54baseball.com/showth...ghlight=batter


Brian

And here are some tintvisuals.

Brian

#32 Joe Cronin
 

"The earlier, lower series cards can be found in colors/hues of black/gray, brown/sepia, red/pinkish, blue, and green. For simplistic purposes, let's call them black, brown, red, blue and green."

I have these three #32-Cronin's. I thought they were blue, pink/red, and purple. Is purple wrong and really a faded red?

https://www.net54baseball.com/attach...1&d=1671737266
https://www.net54baseball.com/attach...1&d=1671737269
https://www.net54baseball.com/attach...1&d=1671737272

Purple is correct...see my post (#17) in this thread.

Brian

The Hack is sepia. The others are blue.

Thank you. Reason I asked is earlier post indicated high numbers did not have sepia. Appreciate it.

Re: Batter-Up cards
 

I said brown when I should have said sepia. Same thing.

I always just thought of the red/pinkish as different hues of the same color or so. I guess it may be considered as an extra, separate color, after all. I think someone else said there is a magenta hue.

Lefty Grove #31....
 

Here are the six color tints for Lefty Grove #31.

Lefty Grove #153....
 

Here are three different tints of Lefty Grove #153. These tints are a lot tougher to distinguish than #31.

Batter-Up confession time...I have always liked the #1 through 80 cards. And not so much the #81 through 192 grouping.

First off, I like the larger size of the lower number cards, as well as the sharp photos, great player selection and all the fun tints.

I have never liked the look of the higher numbers...the photos in general are not as sharp, and the tints used quite often make things grainer and detract instead of enhance the look. And although only slightly smaller than the lower number cards, they just seem inadequate to me. On the plus side there are some fun multi-player cards, and a handful of the bigger names also get a 2nd card.

Brian