Posted By:
RobertSWhile it may be real (and an undocumented variation), these cards with Babe in the sky have been documented by some baseball postcard experts as being fakes.
Several "homemade" Yankee stadium postcards have been produced over the last several years, sold on eBay and at card and PC shows. These cards all featured well-known Yankee stadum designed, with newly-inserted pictures of Ruth.
Indeed, one stadium postcard newsletter has written about this subject, warning would-be buyers. I know of two dealers who bought similar fakes (although not the one you show). Also, these cards are not included in the baseball postcard priceguides (see below).
You should check the card to see if it is:
1) Thinner than the average pre-linen postcard of its day. Many of the fakes were printed on much thinnner stock (remember, real postcards had to make it through the mail).
2) Been produced on a laser printer or copier.
3) Artificially aged or baked. Some are more "aged" than others (check the edges). Not all are "aged," however.
4) Funny looking, with colors that are a bit "off" from the original (unaltered) designs. The fakes are more sepia-like, with color that looks like a photocopy or laser-printed
What the scammers have been doing is to take a well-known, common postcard and alter its design by inserting Babe Ruth.
For example:
Original--
Fake--
Here's the well-known version of the Yankee stadium PC you posted:
(By the way, Haberman and Manhattan Postcard Pub. Co. issued many different versions of the same scene, with the clouds painted differently, and the title moved over to the left -- e.g.:
)
I've seen the card you posted being sold on eBay before and was even warned about them by a dealer, although I have never held one myself and therefore haven't checked it myself. It may be a real variation that has yet to be documented.
These two books contain pretty exhaustive listings of baseball postcards, and don't include your postcard:
"Baseball Stadium Postcards" by Tom Crabtree
&
"Sports Postcard Price Guide" by J.L. Mashburn.
BTW, Here is a link to a previous post on the fake stadium postcard topic:
http://www.network54.com/Forum/153652/message/1118183451/>