Quote:
Originally Posted by bcbgcbrcb
19th Century woodcuts and even early 20th Century Reach & Spalding BB Guides present a terrific opportunity for those vintage baseball rookie collectors like myself who seek each player's earliest collectible without necessarily having a huge budget to spend.
For example, an N172 Harry Wright issued from 1887-90 in lower-grade condition will cost you at least $3,000 for a presentable copy (not to even mention a Peck & Snyder card or other Wright CDV or cabinet cards). At the same time, you can pick up a clean example of an 1869 Cincinnati Team woodcut from Harper's Weekly or Leslie's Illustrated for around $150 and it also includes George Wright, another HOF'er as well. For HOF Rookie collectors, that's an item 20 years earlier (which is our ultimate goal, isn't it) at a cost of approximately 95% less than the lower-grade Old Judge card. If you are doing this for collecting purposes and not investment purposes, I don't see how you can lose with the woodcut in this scenario.
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Exactly. I lucked into my 1869 Harper's woodcut of The Cincinnati team for under $20. Mostly because it was the full issue, and the seller never mentioned the woodcut specifically in the listing. It's currently stored away for safe keeping. I'm still working on a way to display it properly, but I definitely DO NOT plan on cutting it up. Sure having it as a full issue is creating displayability problems for me thus far, but I'd rather have this problem than just the page, or worse yet, just the woodcut..
And while I'm doing this for collecting purposes, I agree with Phil, you really can't lose. But hell, even if I were in it for the investment, the $20 I spent on it seems like a good one..