Collecting Old Judge Baseball Cards

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Posted By: Gilbert Maines

In my opinion, one of the first choices is to determine if the cards actually have to be gradable. There are a great many OJs which have had the cigarette advertisement removed a long time ago, and represent a very cost effective option which can yield a very attractive authentic card which both will not grade and are therefore available rather inexpensively.

Some other sets are quite collectable with less than 100% of the original card offered. Wheaties, Zeenuts, George C. Millers immediately come to mind.

Of course, this decision can be made on a card by card basis, rather than a general philosophy.

As far as reference material, fortunately there are great resources available, but there is still much not understood. The threads on this forum contain much information and insight on this issue. A recent Old Carboard issue contained great information on how these cards were actually made, and some of the resultant considerations, and of course, Lew Lipsett's Encyclopedia is the foundation of understanding of this set.

Reprints and other phoneys are easy to spot since OJs are actual photos. As such, they do not have a dot pattern under magnification. For elaboration on this, please see Cycleback's publication, available for $20. or so - and a bargain.

Have fun!