Photo question: Gehrig/Ruth July 4, 1939

[Forever Young]

Originally Posted by Lordstan

My assessment of rarity has more to do with how often I see things up for sale than an absolute number of items available. Since I have been collecting photos of Gehrig(around 7-8yrs now) I would estimate that one of the various examples of these photos comes up for sale around once or twice a year. Considering there are plenty of photos that come up far less frequently than that, I don't consider this photo rare, even though there might only be a handful of each pose.
Now that fact does not make it less desirable to own one, but if there were only one known it would probably sell for waaay more money. As a comparison, the only know type 1 of Cobb sliding into third, which is certainly equally iconic sold for $49K recently. If there was only one of these, it could be the same.

The Cobb is certainly an extreme example..and I believe there is more than 1 and I believe it went for 77k(if you're talking about the Conlon). That said, I totally get your point and agree with it.
I actually thought I addressed it when comparing to a non scripted event in differences of rarity(the other end of spectrum would be "the babe bows out shot").
1-2 a year is prob about right. Especially if you include "the holy grail" example which has come up 4 times now with 4 different sellers since February. Yikes! You could have got a bargain on that one..

I think these have come out more in the last 5 years with archives being sold. Personally I think it has given a false sense of their rarity. That said, if you go in the mindset of 5-10 of each pose, I think that would be a good starting point answering the question of "how rare" regardless of how many times they have shown up in recent years.

I hope the op finds an example they are happy with. It is certainly a special "snapshot" of baseball history.

Ps: 7-8 years already Mark? 2008? Wow.. Time flies .. You are becoming a photo, senior citizen all of a sudden. Unfortunately, there are no discounts on photos with old age