1890 Old Judge cards

[Bosox Blair]

Originally Posted by RCMcKenzie

Great cards, thanks for posting. What are y'alls thoughts about the written notations of PL and NL as opposed to the cards that have PL and NL printed on the card?

I kinda like having it noted on the text, mainly because these 1890 cards have notoriously light images, so I think it shows up a little better as part of the text, rather than the photo. And at least for me, I'm interested in these because of the P.L./N.L. connection that was so brief in time. So I'm drawn to cards where this is prominent!

You have some nice cards there gents! Hopefully we get to see a bunch more in this thread!!!

Cheers,
Blair

[Fred]

Probably one of the easier NL cards to find...

[DixieBaseball]

Here is my 1890 NL Lefty Marr who played for Nashville before the turn of the century. How rare are NL & PL 1890 cards?

[Bosox Blair]

Originally Posted by NashvilleBaseball

Here is my 1890 NL Lefty Marr who played for Nashville before the turn of the century. How rare are NL & PL 1890 cards?

Hi Jeremy,

I only know what I've read - I have not studied the OJ set myself, but the authors of the OJ book state: "The cards of 1890, especially Players' League cards, are very scarce."

I also note that in their list of the 7 most desirable HOFers from OJ, the authors chose 4 cards from the 1890 series.

Perhaps one of those guys can add more to this discussion?

[z28jd]

I would say that finding any 1890 card isn't too hard, but finding a particular one is very tough. As I mentioned, just last year I found a Hallman PL card that was a new discovery and it's likely one of a kind. Now, he has multiple poses, so an 1890 card of Hallman isn't a one of a kind item, just that pose.

You would be hard-pressed to get multiple examples of a card like I have with Farrar, that was just dumb luck on my part and prices so good there was no way I could pass them up.

I can't put a particular number on them, but Player's League cards are in the 100's and same goes for the NL cards. Maybe 500 total exist, just a guess

[Joe_G.]

While none of the 1890 cards are common, some do seem to surface more frequently than others. Among them, the Ewing & Mascot PL card and Harry Wright NL card.

[Bosox Blair]

Originally Posted by Joe_G.

While none of the 1890 cards are common, some do seem to surface more frequently than others. Among them, the Ewing & Mascot PL card and Harry Wright NL card.

Hi Joe,

This is interesting to me. By "surface", do you mean cards offered for sale?

I'm only aware of 2 examples of the Ewing/Mascot PL being offered for public sale, those being 6 years apart at REA (2007 and 2013). The 2007 example was later cracked out of the SGC slab and offered raw on eBay in 2012. The 2013 example (mine above) was previously in an SGC 30 holder and was for sale on eBay before REA, but the card was regraded and bumped to a 40. Maybe all of this activity leads to a perception that there are more of these out there than there really are? Or maybe you know about transactions I am unaware of?

On the other hand, over that same timeframe I know of 4 different Wright NL cards sold at auction.

If by "surface" you refer to cards held in private collections, I have no idea and you would have more knowledge of that than I do.

Cheers,
Blair

[oldjudge]

In general, PL cards are a lot scarcer than NL cards (not sure why). There are roughly 50 players with PL cards. Many are very rare--three copies or less. I would estimate that there are 100-150 PL cards and probably 2-3 times that amount of NL cards.

[Matthew H]

Originally Posted by Fred

Probably one of the easier NL cards to find...

Great card Fred.