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Posted By: davidcycleback

Baseball cards as historical record and reference is true. Game used jerseys and equipment collectors and even authenticators uses cards as photo documentation. I once had had a pair of Lee Smith shoes and photo matched them to a 1980s Topps card with a nice clear picture of him pitching off the mound during a game. One shoe had distinct 'steel toed boot' alteration to the toes area, presumably to give Smith extra protection. The card was included with the shoes at sale.

A common collector's rule for game used buying, is you should establish that the player used that brand and style of equipment. Even if you can't photo match the exact shoes, if a pair of Lee Smith game used Puma shoes are in auction you at least want to establish that he wore that he wore Puma brand and of the same style (high tops, low tops, etc). With modern players like Terrell Owens and Reggie Bush, collectors will study minute detail-- like the size, angle and exact placement of the Nike swoosh, etc. If you only find cards and online pics of Lee Smith wearing Adidas and Nike brands, you might want to pass on the Pumas for sale-- as you have no documentation that he even wore that brand and style of shoe (For the record, my Lee Smith shoes were low top Pumas the size of canoes). Old and new baseball cards are great references for this type of collector's brand and style research. In fact, for common players like Eddie Fischer and Rick Sutcliffe, there might be better photo documentation in one baseball card collection than on all of online, including Corbis and Getty.