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Posted By: hankron

Baseball tintypes are scarce on the market, so getting one's hands on most any sort of baseball tintype is a nice deal. Tintypes of boxers can be found with some regularity. If I recall correctly, someone on this board showed a tintype of a football player. You don't see many of those at all.

Beyond the quality of the image (subject, uniforms, clarity, etc), two keys to be aware of are size and age. All other things equivilant, the larger the more expensive. If you ever see an auction with a 'full plate' baseball tintype, that's the largest size, rare and highly desirable. Tintypes from the 1870s and earlier are scarce and typically expensive. Usually, the uniform and equipment will identify the early examples.

Only a handful of known baseball tintypes show Hall of Famers or even known Major Leaguers. Most tintypes show folks no one can identify, which has never stopped them from being collectable.