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Posted By: Joe_G.

As alluded to in the Looking back -Five most important acquisitions - 2008 thread, I completed a major milestone in 2008 by acquiring the twenty-eighth and final Detroit Old Judge pose issued in 1887, the year Detroit won the Championship. For me, the journey began in 1989 when I won my first Detroit Old Judge in a Lew Lipset auction (manager Bill Watkins). At that time, my goal was to simply acquire a single copy of each player but that evolved to all poses when I returned to collecting in 2003.

Many Old Judge collectors know that the bulk of the 1887 issue fall under the long or leading zero numbered cards which include all eight National League teams and Brooklyn (NY Mets & St. Louis Browns cards fall under the Script and Short Numbered series). Detroit was issued twenty-eight sequentially numbered cards in 1887 (#0481 0508).

Without further ado, the complete 1887 Old Judge Detroit team set (at a download-friendly ~50 kb/card):






























The cards can also be viewed here => http://www.sgccardregistry.com/set.aspx?cat=6&set=33

Multiple upgrades have allowed me to arrive at an average grade of 44. Duplicates of all poses for Wiedman, Twitchell, Richardson and others have passed through my collection. I dont get too caught up in technical grade as I place most importance on image quality, but wouldnt mind eventually hitting an average grade of 50.

The adventure has been far from a one-stop shop and I would like to thank the following individuals who have helped me over the years (listing only those whose cards reside in current collection). Some such as Dave Levin were able to locate more than one card for me from his Oregon and Indy finds. Others were able to funnel cards my way from the Richard Egan collection etc.

- John Billingsley
- John Cherpock
- Bill Cornell
- Tim Divodik
- Rob Forgue
- Bruce Kasarda
- Lew Lipset
- Dave Levin
- Leon Luckey
- Joe Maples
- Mastro
- Jay Miller
- Robert Petrucelli
- S.V. Rice
- Bob Richardson
- Alan Sassoon
- Barry Sloate
- James Stewart
- Rhys Yeakley

For those interested, the financial break-down follows but keep in mind Im a collector, not an investor. Individual card cost ranges from $16 to $2000 with a total investment just shy of $18k (less than $1k / year collected, although the entire subset could have been collected over the last five years through aggressive buying/networking). Substantial cost was incurred by the fact that eleven of the poses are split between HOFers Dan Brouthers, Ned Hanlon, and Sam Thompson. These more expensive cards were purchased more recently (last five years).

There are still plenty Detroit Old Judge cards to strive for beyond upgrades. Of the twenty-two different players and manger to collect stats with the team in 1887, only nine would be issued cards in 1887. Several more would be issued cards in 1888 and still more in 1889 (with other teams). In all, twenty of the twenty-two members of the 1887 team would be issued Old Judge cards in one form or another. I am also actively pursuing all these poses. Ive started a second entry on SGCs website to track my favorite Old Judge cards of each player together with Gypsy Queen and Cabinet cards. There are still many poses that have eluded me; but such is the world of collecting Old Judges. I love this set, someone should write a book.

http://www.sgccardregistry.com/set.aspx?cat=6&set=380 (still need to add scans)

Best Regards & Happy Holidays,
Joe Gonsowski