I see a lot of APBA entries on Ebay but this one really caught my eye. Assuming it is legit and all, it would be a real catch. It’s an original 1953 APBA baseball game with the cards.
It appears to be slightly used (there’s some writing on the boards here and there) but it is intact. The current bid at this writing is $682 and there’s 5 days left if you care to make a go of it.
![1956apba[1]](http://www.apbablog.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/1956apba1.jpg "1956apba[1]")
I’ve been in contact with Pete, the man who bought the 1956 original set of cards on Ebay I wrote about a few days back.
We initially got talking because he wanted to clarify my erroneous statement that the set was bought by a Sport Memorabilia shop. My bad! It was my error (though for some reason Ebay showed it as such).
Once that was cleared up, I found out Pete also has the the original 1957 set as well. If memory serves, that was a pretty fun set. I think I have the reprint somewhere.
Pete hadn’t actually received the cards at that point so I asked him to shoot me an email when they arrived to give me his impressions of the set.
Sure enough, I got his email last night and this is what Pete had to say:
I received the cards. I’m very happy. They all have either the batting average or pitching record written neatly on the top of the card but other than that the cards are close to mint. I think they may have been handled by me more in the last day than in the previous 50 years. Included with the cards came XC’s (I think), about 4-5 extra cards. The only negative as described in the Ebay ad is the Reds set. It’s in pretty bad set, looks like some water damage as they are all warped but certainly could be played with. Of course I knew they would be in bad shape but again, with the condition of the other cards, overplays the Reds team. As I said, I’m very happy with what I got.
That’s too bad about the water damage. The important thing is that you are happy with what you got.
Anyway, thanks for sharing, Pete. What’s next? 1955 original set??
Interesting auction on Ebay that just finished (here’s the link for as long as they keep it up). The seller was auctioning off the original 1956 APBA baseball card set.
Here the description of the set off the Ebay page:
This set has 15 of the original 1956 teams (Reds are missing). Those 15 teams are in very good to excellent condition. However, each card has either the batting AVG or ERA of the player written at the top in pen. The envelopes are in good shape but, again, each has the year written at the top in pen. In addition I have included a set of the 1956 Reds team from a loose collection I purchased. The Reds cards have no writing but are in poor shape, as you can see by the scan. They have no original envelope. There is no lineup sheet. The cards look better than the scan except for the Robinson card, which like the rest of the Reds is in poor condition.
Don’t bother getting your wallet out. The auction just finished. It sold for $338. The buyer was a Sports Memorabilia Cards & Fan Shop an individual who already had the 1957 set..
The cards (at least the ones in the scanned image) look in good shape all things considered but they are marked up. And there is one team missing.
Anyway, your opinion?? Was a bargain? Did he pay too much? Do we care? :)
On my White Sox trivia tear-off calendar today was this, “Introduced in 1866, Sebring’s Parlor Base Ball Field was the first tabletop baseball game.” Doing some research I found an article on the Baseball Hall of Fame website, which talked about tabletop baseball games. Visit the website and you can even play online versions of these antique baseball games from yesterday.
The picture above is not of Sebring’s game, but rather Zimmer’s Base Ball game of 1893. Neither APBA nor Strat-O-Matic was featured in the HOF exhibit.
