I'm also a big fan of the Harper's Weekly Woodcuts. For collectors on a budget like myself they're great. They offer very old baseball collectibles with great images of top tier HoFers for relatively low prices.
I got started with a few that had the woodcuts cut out, but then started picking up full pages. They look great. I've got several at the framer right now and at least another one that will be getting framed as well. When I get them all back, I'm hoping to take some pictures to show them off
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Right now, I've really been trying to get full pages. I'm not as concerned with having the full issue, but I'd like to have the full page, if possible, even if the rest of the page isn't baseball related.
So far I've picked up:
Oct 15, 1859 - both full pages showing the baseball and the cricket matches
July 3, 1869 - Red Stocking baseball club, only the woodcut (about 1/2 page)
Oct. 17, 1885 - Chicago Baseball club, full page
Oct. 27, 1888 - Comiskey, Latham, full page
Nov. 9, 1889 - Ewing Cover, full page
May3, 1890 - opening of the baeball season, 2 full pages with woodcuts on both sides
I'm not going for a full run, but I'd still like to find June 27, 1874 (boston), Oct. 14, 1882 (Chicago), and Oct. 20 1888 (Keefe, Ewing).
I do have one question for other Harper's Weekly collectors. Some of the pages I've picked up have been colored prior to making it to me. They are done very nicely with watercolor and look great in my opinion. As I understand it, coloring the woodcuts is pretty common, but I wanted to know what others think about it. Would you rather have the original images without any coloring? Does it diminish or add to the value at all? Do you seek them uncolored or colored or does it matter to you? I'll hopefully have some pics to show what mine look like soon to give a better idea.