1934-36 Batter-Ups

[Archive]

Posted By: Chris Counts

Brad,

Wow! Thanks for the great scans of Lefty Grove. I believe it's safe to say that the red card is not a variation of magenta. I've been searching eBay for Batter-ups the past few months, and I've been surprised at how many magenta cards I've seen. Just now, I did a quick survey of Batter-ups on eBay. I looked at about 150 cards and I came up with the following numbers of color cards ...

green — 1
red — 1
magenta — 10
blue — 5

It's was difficult on eBay to tell the difference between the b&ws and sepias, but most cards I looked at were one or the other. But I continued to find more magentas than the other three colors combined. I also saw about 30 high numbers, all of which appear to have a slightly brown tint, but not quite sepia. I don't believe I've seen a high number in another color. Could the color cards — especially the red and green — be harder to find than even the high numbers?

I consider Batter-ups to be an underrated set. The poses are fantastic and the images ultimately more realistic-looking than the Goudeys and Diamond Stars of the same era. Plus, the stars in particular are far more affordable than their counterparts, especially in the Goudey sets. I recently picked up a moderately-worn Hubbell for $30 at a show in the Bay Area — if it had been a '33 Goudey in the same shape I would have paid over $100 ...