1940 Diamond Dust Punchboard Cards - How rare are these?

[Exhibitman]

Originally Posted by brianp-beme

A Hartnett has now been spotted on the internet.

Brian

Added to the list above, thanks.

Amazing how few of these have the original white borders intact. FWIW, total PSA pop is 32 cards of which 31 are "A". And this one:



PSA has 27 different and for the OP has a record of one Hank Greenberg.

PSA's auction function reports one sale, a Gehringer in 2019 by PWCC for $72. Scott B sold a Dean in 2014 for $24.75 (sigh).

All of which reinforces my initial premise: these things are rare.

[BobC]

Originally Posted by Exhibitman

Added to the list above, thanks.

Amazing how few of these have the original white borders intact. FWIW, total PSA pop is 32 cards of which 31 are "A". And this one:



PSA has 27 different and for the OP has a record of one Hank Greenberg.

PSA's auction function reports one sale, a Gehringer in 2019 by PWCC for $72. Scott B sold a Dean in 2014 for $24.75 (sigh).

All of which reinforces my initial premise: these things are rare.

Does anyone have an unpunched Diamond Dust game board? If some of these paper cards can be going for that much and are that rare, then what would an unpunched game board with all the player cards still intact possibly be worth? Guess that would be like finding an unopened pack of cards from back in the 30's or 40's. Except, wouldn't the unpunched Diamond Dust game board likely have all, or at least a majority, of all the cards in the set still locked inside? Or would it possibly be worth more to punch all the paper cards out?

[CTDean]

There were some game boards on eBay in the $200 to $400 range. No clue to if they are vintage or reproduction.

[BobC]

Originally Posted by CTDean

There were some game boards on eBay in the $200 to $400 range. No clue to if they are vintage or reproduction.

That was why I was asking. If an original one with the paper cards still intact could be acquired for so little, you'd expect someone to buy them and punch out the individual cards to sell.

Does anyone even know how to tell if a particular punchboard has the baseball player cards inside it, or what the ones that do definitively look like? In the SCD catalog description they merely state the punchboard was for a 5 cent per chance/selection Diamond Dust game from 1940 with 624 punch holes or spots on it, and that the paper cards were a consolation prize to someone if they didn't get lucky and pick one of the correct punch holes to get one of the the fifteen different player cards that resulted in a $1 prize then. Based on that it would seem that each of the 624 punch holes would have a paper card in it then, with the 15 different listed $1 prize winner player cards limited to no more than a few per punchboard so whoever was seller the chances could make money off the card. That would leave the player cards in the remaining punch holes to likey be filled with a mix of cards of the other 18 players from off the 33 player checklist shown in the SCD catalog. In that case, even if every one of these paper player cards was only worth a few dollars each, with 624 cards per punchboard, that should easily make any complete, unpunched punchboard of this variety worth at least a couple thousand dollars, if not more.

And based on the SCD catalog description, it would seem likely the checklist was put together by someone acquiring and then punching open all 624 spots on the punchboard to see what player cards were in them. The SCD catalog checklist notes that 3 of the 15 different $1 winning player cards are unconfirmed (Joe Cronin, Red Ruffing & Rudy York). I'm guessing then that those 3 player's cards were listed as $1 winners on the face of the punchboard itself, and that is why they are still included in the checklist, though unconfirmed. If that is the case, and yet no one to date has found an example of any of those 3 player cards, isn't it possible there are also still unknown/unchecklisted cards of other players that were not winnig cards? Would seem to make sense at least.

The SCD catalog description also stated that earlier and later versions of Diamond Dust punchboards, that apparently also used these same or similar paper player cards, also existed, but were not checklisted in the catalog. That would seem to open up the possibility of there being even more unknown and unlisted Diamond Dust player cards out there beyond just the ones that were found and checklisted in the SCD catalog from the sole 1940 Diamond Dust punchboard card version they to chose to use. Truth is, if you do an online search you'll find a large number of different versions of these Diamond Dust punchboards were made over a number of years. No telling how many different versions were ever actually produced, or how many different player's may have actually had cards made of them.

I actually have a small collection of these gambling punchboards, including many baseball related ones that are generic and don't list player names or have images or cards of them included and given out as prizes. None of these were put out by Diamond Dust. However, I also do have one actual Diamond Dust baseball punchboard that is completely untouched and unpunched. It even still has the unbroken seal on it that covers the hollowed out space on the back of the punchboard where the actual punch key still rests. And like the 1940 Diamond Dust punchboard described in the SCD catalogs, it is also a 5 cents per play game. However, unlike the punchboard described in the catalogs, mine only has 600 punch holes (24 rows of 25 punch holes), and only lists 12 winning $1 players:

Feller
DiMaggio
Fox (misspelled with only one X on the punchboard)
Selkirk
Derringer
Ruffing
Greenberg
Lombardi
Werber
Herman
French
Frey

The 1940 SCD catalog's listed punchboard version included 15 winning players, with only DiMaggio, Foxx (spelled correctly), Ruffing, and Lombardi shown as $1 winners on both there's and my punchboards. The Selkirk, Derringer, Werber, Herman, French, and Frey winners listed on my punchboard are not included at all on the SCD's 1940 punchboard checklist.

My punchboard is not that large, measuring only about 5-1/4" wide by about 7-7/8" tall. A copy of the exact version I have was sold in a Huggins and Scott auction that ended back on 3/31/2011, lot #713, if you want to see what my version looks like. My actual one does not have the instruction sticker on the back, but does have the intact punch key cover/seal and another sticker that indicates it is size 600 R and also shows a hand written serial number and operator number, along with a hand checked box indicating the ticket color was white, out of four different choices also including blue, pink, and yellow. Never was sure what the ticket color referred to. It didn't go for very much in the 2011 auction either. And then maybe strangest of all, my punchboard is only about 9/16" thick. The SCD catalog describes the Diamond Dust cards as being printed on a ribbed paper measuring about 1" X 1-3/4", which pretty much conforms to any images of these paper cards that I've ever seen. But with my punchboard being only about 9/16" thick, there's no way any 1" X 1-3/4" paper card would fit into the punch holes on my punchboard, unless maybe the paper cards were also somehow folded in half? But if that were done, you would think the fold mark would be clearly visible as it would have to run perpendicular to the fold marks from the ribbed paper used. I've never seen such a fold mark on any Diamond Dust card or image I've ever come across before. So that makes me wonder if these Diamond Dust cards ever came in smaller sizes, or how they actually were originally folded and placed in the punch holes then. Anyone have any clues or ideas, or ever gone ahead and tried punching one of these cards out of a punchcard before? Would love to hear/see any info out there.

[CobbSpikedMe]

If my memory is correct, there hasn't been an unpunched board found that could've held these cards as the boards are not thick enough to fit them. My memory has been known to be faulty at times though.

[BobC]

Originally Posted by CobbSpikedMe

If my memory is correct, there hasn't been an unpunched board found that could've held these cards as the boards are not thick enough to fit them. My memory has been known to be faulty at times though.

And that's why I brought this all up. Something doesn't make sense when you look at the cards and all the punchboards still out there. So now I wonder what exactly is in all these unpunched punchboards that are still out there. Surely someone has to have one of these that has been partially punched so they could go ahead and punch one more out right now to see exactly what is in them, without having to ruin an unpunched game board.

[Zan]

We had a similar conversation in another thread. Essentially proved that the cards were too wide to fit into most boards. I bought one and opened it and got nothing but numbered pieces of paper.