For sure, $200.-$300. would be a bargain price for that game. We hate to say it (because we'll never be able to afford it), but the typical market price is more than twice that.
Our best research (or really, Hall of Fame Senior Curator Tom Shieber's best research) indicates the game debuted in 1890, although subtle differences in the text inside the box lid of several different examples suggest it was available and reprinted over a number of years. Parker Brothers also produced essentially the same game, with different titles and graphics, as The Game of BaseBall and The College Base Ball Game in the late 1890s and early 1900s.
We've seen examples that included as many as ten markers. None are really "necessary" to play the game, and eight (four a side) seems plenty, so whether eight, ten, or eighteen was the original number, we can only guess. We can say for certain that the game is missing one die, and we're fairly sure that the one included does not look original to the game. We've not previously seen a dice-shaker included with any example.
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