1926 Babe Ruth "strip" card

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Posted By: Zach Rice

How many here saw the ebay auction where the card below was being sold as a strip card ?



I noticed that a board member won it and i'm sure many others probably saw it and I just wanted to give out some information on it. First off, it isn't a strip card. It was part of the cardboard top to a childrens game that Babe Ruth endorsed in I guess the late 20s or maybe even the early 1930s. One of these games showed up on ebay a few months back and I luckly saved the image for no reason. When I stumbled across the card pictured above on ebay, I remembered the game and knew that this card wasn't a strip card, but simply a cut out picture of Ruth from a game for children. Here is a close up picture of the box where the image of Ruth can be seen very clearly.


Maybe the bidders or viewers knew this already, but I just thought I would try to help inform those who didn't. Regardless of where it came from, I still think it's a neat item.

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Posted By: fkw

Thanks for the info Zach, I guess I can live with that, as long as it is vintage and not a reproduction of the photo from the box. Its the second one Ive seen on eBay, I had a feeling it was cut from something, but I was thinking it may have been a shoe box or something, since it is similar to the shoe tag below.

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Posted By: fkw

I have a feeling now it may not be vintage. Im going through my photos, and found the other picture I have of the cut out piece. They are not the same piece, the edges are slightly different. I think both of these may be reproductions made from the box photo. Here is the one today, and a picture I saved from the one I saw a while back. Along with the blue tint, Both have the stain in lower corner and the same spots. Doesnt look good, the seller of the one on eBay today also had a bunch of reprint garbage. Thats what I get for taking a chance at last second on something I didnt know about.

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Posted By: Gilbert Maines

Is a shoe tag a card? How about an old Darby's Chocolate box, or cut outs from a notebook cover? Come on, some think Dixie Lids are even cards, and matchbooks, why not game box cut outs - certainly game pieces are cards.

This seems like a legitimate buy, considering the above and other examples. I saw this item, kinda figured it right and didn't want it. But others did.

Edited to add: unless it is a fake game box cut out. That would be very strange.

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Posted By: dennis

gil thank you for stopping short of "graded pictures" cut out from vintage baseball publications. i would agree that the ruth item (if cut from the box) is a legit piece... but not a card.

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Posted By: jay behrens

Why would you cut it from the box other than to try and deceive someone and make them think they are buying a card? There is a strong market for board games, especially sports games, the cover itself is worth more than than just hacking out the Ruth picture unless you don't know what you are buying and think it is a card when it's not.

Personally, I put in the same catagory as the paper cutouts. Something much more important was destroyed in order to make someone think they are getting something more valuable than it really is.

Jay

A good friend will come bail you out of jail. A true friend will be sitting next to you saying, "Damn, that was fun."

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Posted By: dennis

maybe it was cut out in the 1930's by a kid who wanted a ruth card.

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Posted By: Zach Rice

Here is a picture of the entire box.

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Posted By: fkw

IMO The blue tinted ones are fakes made from the box picture. If you look at the 2 pictures above you will notice the edges are slightly different (2 different cards), but both were reproduced from the same original picture (notice the small white dots, and the small stain in lower left corner). I believe now that they are flea market fakes made from the picture on the box. I have only seen 2 of them (both pictured).

I would have been happy if this item was the same color as the one on the box (cut from the box), but I now believe it is just a (blue tint) fake made from the box photo. Oh well, I havent paid yet, I wrote the seller and showed him the pictures, waiting on a reply.

Frank

Edited to say... Thanks Zach for the pictures, I knew Ive seen the photo before, but I forgot about the game box (Ive seen the box in auction catalogs before), for some reason I was thinking it was a shoe box cutout or something.

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Posted By: dennis

by the look of the pic of the box it looks like the ruth pic, if cut from the box ,would be rather large unless it's a small box?

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Posted By: fkw

Good point...

From what the seller said in an earlier email the blue tinted "card" is 1.5" by 3", so it seems far smaller than what the cutout piece should be if actually cut from the box.

Oh well I just got a reply from the seller....... a one word reply "Whatever"

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Posted By: Kyle

I emailed the seller the day or two after the card was listed and let him know what he had. I sent him a picture from an old Hunt Auction of the game. Obviously it didn't matter in the long run. He never wrote me back thanking me or acknowledging the email.

Take care,
Kyle

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Posted By: Jim F

As luck would have it, I walked into an antique show this morning and this game was the first thing I saw. We'll call it vg-ish, complete and the graphics on the front are complete with no rips or missing paper. One of the side panels is ripped but overall presents nicely. Anyone know what this piece sells for? I'm not going to say the price I paid yet, incase I got smoked. Jim.

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Posted By: Jim F

Does anyone know of a reference site for vintage baseball games? I found this game listed in old Hunt and Hake's auctions but they were both the version that came with cards, this is the spinner version, I'm just trying to find out which version is older. Thanks