OJ Question

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Posted By: <b>Seth B.</b><p>Sheesh, nobody's talking about cards on this forum anymore. Here's an easy question I'd like an answer to: Old Judges were printed over several years. I know it's possible to distinguish between years, as auction catalogs and slab flips do so. What are the telling factors for each year of the N172 run? Thanks,<br /><br />Seth

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Posted By: <b>Judge Dred (Fred)</b><p>Something to realize is that the grading companies don't distinguish which year a card is from. They (SGC and PSA) typically put the (accepted) first year of issue (1887) on the flips. You can tell the grading company which year it is from but they only designate 1887 as the year of issue. I'd like to see if someone has a flip that indicates otherwise because I couldn't get either company to place the proper year on the flip (unless it happened to be 1887). <br /><br />There is a copyright on the cards that may provide a little insight regarding the issue year. There are different styles of cards which also give away the year of issue. There are some cards which are assumed to be from 1890 because the teams indicated for the player could only be from that particular year. <br /><br />There's other ways to date these things... anyone else want to chime in?

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Posted By: <b>Judge Dred (Fred)</b><p>A card like the one in this ebay sale would be tough to distinguish the year because there's something missing... <br /><br />1887 Old Judge (N172)#470 Cannonball Titcomb N.Y. NL Item number: 220016247075 <br /><br />minimum guaranteed grade of AUTHENTIC from GAI is humorous...

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Posted By: <b>Jay</b><p>Get hold of Lew Lipset's Encyclopedia of Baeball Cards Vol. 1 and he illustrates the appearance of cards from each year. Basically you tell by the way the Goodwin & Co ad is presented at the bottom. If the card only says "Goodwin & Co. , New York" at the bottom it is from late-1886/1887. If it has a 3 line ad with only the word "Cigarettes" as the middle line it is from 1888. Now it gets a little tougher. If it has a three line ad at the bottom and the middle line says "Cigarette Factory" AND there is no PL or NL after the players team or inscribed in the photo (only PL's) it is from 1889. There are one or two exceptions to this but for this discussion they can be ignored.If the card has the ad presented as would an 1889 card but has a PL or an NL then it is an 1890 card. The PL or NL stands for Player's League or National League and such clarification was only necessary because of the formation of the Player's League for the 1890 season.<br />BTW, the copyright date on the picture does not tell when the card was issued, only when the photo was taken.

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Posted By: <b>Paul</b><p>Jay,<br /><br /> Can you safely assume that a card with the curved Old Judge banner at the top is 1886/7? Or is your method more accurate?<br /><br />Paul

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Posted By: <b>Jay</b><p>Paul--The Old Judge banner at the top, curved or otherwise, also implies late-1886/1887. I was just trying to describe a method that worked for each year. The banner at the top can also be used to date trimmed cards which have the ad removed from the bottom.