Darrow Tie Box Oilcloth 1933 Style Reproduction Monopoly Game Set

Description: This auction is for one complete replica 1933 style Darrow Tie Box Monopoly set. This predated the more famous White Box and Black Box sets Charles Darrow made in 1934 and 1935, respectively. The Tie Box name comes from the long and narrow box shape. Some say that the originals were actual tie boxes Darrow purchased, although this has not been confirmed. Even if this is so, the boxes were modified to fit the board and pieces. Only two such original Tie Box sets are presently known to exist. After making this one, I see why. One reason I enjoy making replicas of these early games is to gain additional insights into their history. A long, narrow box such as this undergoes a great deal of stress, and over the course of nearly 90 years, practically all the originals have long since fallen apart. Of course, they were never designed to last 90 years in the first place. Our replica boxes are made more durable, and should last for a long time. For this set we made some original wood houses and hotels, which were then stained a natural wood color. The very early Darrow sets came with 10 hotels and 42 houses. My speculation is that Darrow changed this to the more familiar 12 and 32 because it was the functional equivalent, but reduced the number of pieces he had to make. As with the early Darrow originals, the hotels are twice as long as the houses. Our set comes with a faithful reproduction of the Darrow Tie Box rules, which were themselves a minor modification of the ones that Charles Todd had typed up for Darrow in 1933. According to Monopoly collector Dan Fernandez, the Oilcloth sets came with 15 Chance and 15 Community Chest cards. One of each was added for the 1934 White Box set, and a substitution was made for one Community Chest card in the 1935 Black Box set. We have included all these in our Tie Box to give players the maximum flexibility in using them. The Chance, Community Chest, and Property cards here are the same size as the ones made for the Darrow White Box. These cards were downsized somewhat for the Darrow Black Box, which had a much smaller box. Each game comes with: 1 23″ Holographic Game Board on Blackout Cloth, 1 Cardboard Tube, 1 Implements box, 1 set of Rules, 42 Houses, 10 Hotels, 16 Chance cards, 17 Community Chest cards, 6 game pieces, 2 Dice, 28 Deeds, plus Scrip Money in the following amounts: 60x $1 30x $2 50x $5 60x $10 30x $20 30x $50 30x $100 10x $500 A total of $11,070. The buyer can choose between either Darrow Type 1 bills with the widely spaced fonts, or Darrow Type 0 typewritten play money. We can provide whichever you prefer. In addition, the set comes with a “holographic” (hand-drawn) folding game board on blackout cloth, the modern equivalent of oilcloth. The prototype is on green cloth but the production boards will be on white cloth.This board is hand drawn and colored using ink and paint on blackout cloth, which is the closest modern equivalent of the old type of oilcloth from the 1930s. The playing surface should hold up just fine if properly taken care of. As actual early Monopoly items become older and older, more scarce and valuable, they take on the status of "holy relics" that you probably should treat with kid gloves. Naturally, some of the experience of using them to actually play Monopoly is thereby lost. Also lost, over the years, is what I call the "shock of the new." Long gone is the experience of opening up one of these classic game sets and using it for the first time. That's part of what I hope to bring back with these reproduction sets. I want anyone who gets one of these to have the same sort of elation that buyers had in 1933, when this was all a brand new thing. If you were a close personal friend of Charles Darrow in 1933, you could have paid him to make a game set such as this. Then, most likely, you would have stuck it into your dresser until when you wanted to get your friends and family together for an evening of that new game, Monopoly. Playing it back then was like being a member of a private club or a fraternity. Original Tie Box sets are worth tens of thousands of dollars and I seriously doubt anyone would want to try playing a game with anything so old and fragile. But with one of our handmade sets, you can have much the same experience for but very little cost. Needless to say, it takes a considerable amount of time and effort to produce a one-of-a-kind item such as this. We are never going to be able to make them in anything but the smallest of quantities. Blackout cloth has a nice rubberized backing. This board is suitable either for framing as a piece of "folk art" or for actually playing Monopoly. PAYMENT You can pay using any eBay approved payment method, including PayPal. Your prompt payment is greatly appreciated. SERVICE Items will be mailed promptly, and packed securely so as to avoid being damaged. SHIPPING METHOD: The set will be shipped domestically by USPS First Class Mail for $10.00. Priority Mail costs $15.00. Outside the US, we use eBay Global Shipping. They determine the rates. REFUNDS: I provide a refund (purchase price only) after your return of any item that I shipped with a physical defect or is not the item listed - BUT you must contact me first for a return authorization. REFUND EXCLUSION: Damage or loss by the US Postal Service is not eligible for refunds since I can't control what they do with a package after I deliver it to them. FEEDBACK: If you aren't happy, please contact me before you leave non-positive feedback. I don't care about receiving feedback, but if it's important to you let me know and I'll respond to your feedback.

Price: 99.99 USD

Location: Forest Park, Illinois

End Time: 2025-01-08T08:10:51.000Z

Shipping Cost: 10 USD