Old Game of Nations with a surprise

We did a quick road trip through Ramona, CA today.  We stopped at a big estate liquidation place and found two old old games on one of the back shelves.  They were actually priced reasonably: the Game of Nations box was $10 and Hokum was $12.  A lot of times, the things that accumulate in antique shops have inflated prices, but this wasn't an antique shop and they were actually right in the range for a quick sale.  I might have paid $20 off the shelf.  The issue is, I would have to read the rules, figure out the correct number of cards and risk having missing cards.  If someone offered it online and took good photos and I knew all the cards were there, for game of that period I am actively seeking, I can do $50.  Prices are such subjective things.

When I got home I immediately saw that Hokum was just a Bingo game, but it was from 1927 and in good shape.  It was still sealed at the store, and the packaging was tougher than the plastic used these days, so I didn't get a chance to look at it until I got home.  It's still a good find, and I could probably resell it to pay for the lunch we had.





Game of Nations I already knew about.  It's one of those thematic but simple trick-taking or suit-building card games like the game of Authors.  Here it is over at BoardGameGeek.  Old Milton Bradley games in good shape should always be worth it.  I wasn't planning to look at small print, so I didn't bring my reading glasses on the trip, but when I got home, I saw this was the 1908 edition.  At a glance it was racially charged and the design would not fly today.  But the maps were very interesting and the high cards in each suit (each suit was a continent) were gorgeous animals.

Oddly, there was a second deck of cards in the box, neatly tied up with thread.  This was not named, and no instructions were provided, but it has really distinctive cards that say "Lost Heir" and "Wrong Boy", so we could quickly identify it as an early edition of The Lost Heir, probably about 1930.  This is covered by BoardGameGeek here.

It doesn't sound like either of these games has a lot of strategy.  They're just simple old matching card games, but it was fun getting a game that was older than I expected with a whole second game tucked away in the box.

 



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