Negro League Broadside - help needed

[RichardSimon]

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

[baseball tourist]

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

[bcbgcbrcb]

Richard:

E-mail sent.

Thanks,

Phil Garry

[RichardSimon]

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.

[aelefson]

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

[Oldtix]

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?

[Oldtix]

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.