By Doug Graves Somewhere between their first birthday and their first kiss, many children fall in love – with their board games. And it is a love affair that can last a lifetime. For some investors and dealers, there is good money in those old loves, as they look to reconnect people with the actual games that were consigned to memory (and the trash) so long ago. “When people want to relive their childhood, they will pay almost anything,” says Joyce Grant, founder of TimeWarpToys.com, an online vintage toy store out of New York. “It’s crazy sometimes.” “Games are not in as much demand as some toys, but if they are attached to the right licensed television, movie or comic book franchise, they can go through the roof,” said Jordan Hembrough, a toy collecting expert from Westwood, N.J. Hembrough also hosted the Toy Hunter TV show from 2012-2014. Hembrough said that while prices for certain collectible toys have soared recently, there are segments of the toy market still priced within reason that offer the potential for decent returns. One such segment, Hembrough says, is vintage games. Predicting which board games will rise in value can be challenging, but many rare games feature an unusual twist or are tied to a franchise from a bygone era that is enjoying a resurgence in popularity. “Be aware of the media and what is happening,” Hembrough advises. “Watch for movies and TV shows that are becoming hot. And look for games in pristine condition. That can have a huge impact on prices.” According to Joyce, Hembrough and others, demand for vintage board games associated with the University Studios monster movies of the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s has surged in recent years, inspired in part by rising interest in other collectibles from the same era. “Games in perfect condition featuring Dracula, Frankenstein or the Wolfman can fetch $1,000,” said Hembrough, who sold a still-sealed 1963 Creature from the Black Lagoon game by Hasbro a few years back for $2,000. “A King Kong game from Ideal Corporation, first published in 1976, might fetch as much as $100, but only if it is in immaculate condition,” Hembrough said. “Demand for games from the 1960s and 1970s is growing,” Grant says, “as younger people are buying them for their parents.” Among Grant’s inventory of vintage games is a 1963 Jungle Hunt shooting game for $400. A Milton Bradly Ice Cube game, one that uses actual ice cubes as playing pieces, goes for $325. Some games, both say, are collectible simply because they’re unique. Which Witch?, a 3-D board game from the 1970s and shaped like a haunted house, sold recently at auction for $200. Green Ghost, a game from 1965 that features glow-in-the-dark pieces and notable because it was meant to be played in the dark, might command as much as $500. “Limited-edition versions of classic games can sometimes fetch good prices,” says Lauren Price, owner of Backboard Games in Cincinnati. “Franklin Mint issued a version of Monopoly in 1991 that looked like the original 1935 Parker Brothers edition and had gold-plated charms. I sold one last year for $800, hundreds more than it would have sold for four years earlier.” Board games as we know them emerged out of the Victorian Era, even though nearly every ancient culture around the world had developed its own strategy and luck games. Many of these original games inspired the games people still play today, including chess, checkers, backgammon, dice, dominoes, marbles, caroms, Mahjong and Parcheesi. One of the earliest known board games was named Game of the Goose, where two or more players move pieces by rolling a die or two dice. The game (originated in the late 1500s in Italy) is considered the prototype of many of the commercial European racing board games of later centuries. The players race around a track divided up into 66 sections, with the goal of being first to the end. The first American board game of Goose was made in 1843 by the W. & S. B. Ives Company of Salem, Mass. In 1844, the Ives brothers invented The National Game of the American Eagle, in which players competed to ascent to the U.S. Presidency while avoiding political pitfalls. Only one copy of the game is known to exist. The earliest 19th century U.S. board games were hand-painted, and while these are treasured by collectors, they are scarce. The McLoughlin Brothers, who mass-produced board games starting in the 1850s, employed lithographic printing techniques to create beautiful games coveted by collectors. Titles included Man on the Moon, The District Messenger Boy (1886) and The Telegraph Boy (1888), the latter celebrating new technology such as telegraphs and steam trains. Also joining the early game makers was Milton Bradley. Bradley, a lithographer, produced The Checkered Game of Life. It was considered by some to be Americas first popular parlor game. It was such a hit 40,000 games were sold by 1861, a year after it hit the market. Also making a name for himself was George S. Parker, who, at the age of 16 in 1883, self-published his first card game called Everlasting along with his brothers. He decided to alter the game to make it about earning money speculating on stocks. He then founded the George S. Parker Company, changing its named to Parker Brothers when his brother, Charles, joined his business. Themes surrounded the names for Parker’s early games, like Klondike (inspired by the gold rush in Alaska) and The Siege of Havana (reflecting the Spanish-American War). In 1934, in the middle of the Great Depression, Charles Darrow approached George Parker with an idea for a game involving buying and renting real estate in Atlantic City. In 1935, Parker Brothers agreed to publish Monopoly, and it was a resounding success. It continues to be one of the most popular board games with more than 200 million copies sold. And while the board design has remained relatively the same, collectors are particularly interested in the early metal tokens – the hat, car, shoe, thimble, iron, purse and cannon. Even the wooden tokens are hard to find these days. By the 1940s, games about capitalism and profiteering proliferated, including Cargoes, Bulls and Bears, and Gusher. Parker Brothers developed and published Finance, Fortune, Finance and Fortune, and The Landlord’s Game. Board games can be divided into three basic types: luck, strategy and knowledge. Basic strategy and luck games from ancient times such as chess have often been remade multiple times. For example, the 1934 game Sorry is really another knockoff of Parcheesi, which owes a great deal to ancient games played in Korea and India. From early on, military strategy games that required armed aggression and stealthy maneuvers were a big hit, starting with The Siege of Havana, the 1918 War of Nations. These were followed in popularity by Battleship, Carrier Strike and Panzerforce, with its tank tokens. Parker Brothers’ Risk, published in 1959 at the height of the Cold War, was the first smash-hit conquest game. Little has changed from its country alignment on the board itself, but a vintage game in near-mint condition would fetch $150-plus at auction. Other popular war games sought after by collectors include Steve Canyon, Combat!, McHale’s Navy and Milton Bradley’s Summit. “Sports games were highly collectible then as they are now and those included football and golf board games,” Price said. “Television in the 1950s led to highly sought after games like Hopalong Cassidy, Davy Crockett and Rin-Tin-Tin. . |