Bourse (1903)

User summary: Although credit for inspiring the Parker Brothers' 1904 hit game Pit is often given to the 1903 Gavitt's Stock Exchange (GSE), this 1903 game from Flinch Card Co. is more obviously Pit's parent. While GSE involved the trading of railway shares, Bourse (like the later Pit) was about trading commodities. All three games use the open-outcry method of trading cards (shouting a number of cards willing to trade but not their nature), and the goal of collecting all the cards of one kind. Bourse uses a deck of 80 cards, ten each of eight commodities: Wheat (80 points), Corn (70), Cotton (60), Oil (50), Beef (40), Pork (30), Mutton (20) and Stocks (10). There are no special cards like GSE's Fatal Telegram or Pit's Bull and Bear.