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1880nonsportswe all had the same idea. Despite being a creature of the 1950's I was able to google the photographer. With further research one could get more specific information as there is a register compiled of all such stereoviews that were produced IN SERIES by known photography studios (certainly incomplete but it's a start). I think of these people as mini Burdicks - compiling information selflessly in a quest to quantify a particular aspect of a hobby/love and making research easier for us all. Many specialty collectors in the genre and I feel this price anomally was due to a baseball interest. I used to collect baseball game in progress pre 1890 photos on a poor man's budget. I have not seen this image before but the uniform and kepi's belie it's generic content. I would guess the typical selling point of an image like this to be in the 200. and change range. DOUBTFUL that this was a civil war collector as there is a lack of worthy content.
(edited to add the word "series" and to note that orange was introduced in the mid-1870's as a mount color. The images which appear to be albumen photographs were used up until the very early part of 1900's but mounts were made darker in the 1890's for a more elegant look - and mounts were typically curved after the 1880's to allow for better clarity and contrast when viewed in a stereoscope.)
(final edit to note that there really only 2 competing bidders once it reached a reasonable level.)