[Archive]

Posted By: Josh Evans

Mr. Cmoking:
We have not been properly introduced so I am not sure what to call you. C? Ciggy?

That is very cool that you are interested in the “baseball card” element of imagery because it is something we have been talking a lot about for the last few weeks. I do believe strongly that this element of the market will become more important in coming years to collectors. People are always looking for niches to collect and this dovetails nicely the collecting of both cards and photography. Kind of like the more recent collecting of tobacco, gum and other pre-War rookie cards which seemed a little too Mark Lewis-y back in the 70s and 80s.

That is a great Ruth shot on left above me there which is the same one used on an exhibit card (I feel like Bobby in the Brady Bunch square looking up and over at Alice or Marsha). I also liked that Ruth home run shot as well and should add that this is from the 1935 three-home run day in Pittsburgh when Ruth was pretty much done and became his last hurrah. Photos of Ruth hitting homers are definitely out there but where you can see the ball is pretty rare. It is not something I was ever aware of but I will be in the future.

Wire photos are never one of a kind, nor is any most photography other than daguerreotypes where there is no negative (the negative and the positive are one and the same). But for the most part this stuff is truly rare. Most of these images I have only ever seen one or a few of and I have been collecting and dealing in this area specifically since the seventies (my Dad got me into it). There are certain exceptions of more common images such as in Nat Fein’s famous Babe Ruth photo from Babe Ruth Day with his back to the camera (it won the Pulitzer for Spot Photography). It is more common, although still very desirable and can sell from anywhere from $500 for a vintage print to over $5,000 for an oversized gallery print signed by Fein. Signed by Ruth, call the papers. It is less scarce for many reasons: it was used a lot of newspapers all across the country, people saved it because they liked it, it has been bootlegged, it has been used in publications since the 1940s and still gets used today, and Fein himself sold gallery prints for decades right up until his death (his estate stills sells them).

As for that Ruth exhibit card pose I do not remember seeing another (but if there are a couple others out there I would not be surprised). Here is another great one that sold in the auction of Matty from his T205 card. It sold for a little over $9,000 which is probably 3-4 times what it would have brought if it were not used on a card. I suppose the ultimate is still the image used for the T206 Wagner. We have had two of those though the years, both well over 10 years ago. They each brought about $20,000. Who knows what they would be today. Depends upon how good the images are and if they are truly vintage.

But yes, we will be having a lot more great stuff in the coming months. A lot of stuff goes in the catalogue sales (twice a year) but we are also putting great stuff in the monthly internet sales (www.lelands.com). Actually there were a ton of great images in the internet only portion of this catalogue auction which there were some great deals on. People on this baioardea might delve more towards gareewaatr individual images but there are other areas that are great that dealers jump into. There are some great huge lots that are great for breakdown, both dealers and collectors.

For example there was a lot of like 10,000 images (all areas) which sold for about a buck apiece which can be a lot of fun. There are also original negatives which get pretty hot and heavy,. There was some great Mays stuff in this one for example (being from SF) which had some great buys in it. So along with the $26,000 images there are some amazing buys.

I am about 2/3 of the way though the collection in terms of sorting and about ½ way through in terms of selling. You never know what you are going to find. But we are also adding to the archive every day. We buy stuff and we are getting significant consignments of images all the time.