N173 Cabinet card- Joe Gunson, need some insight
 

New to the forum and am in the process of moving to auction a n173 Joe Gunson card found by a friend that deals antiques. As seen in the scan below, the card is in pretty good shape until you see the trimmed bottom.

My understanding is that complete, the card is valued around $1000, but trimmed more like $500. Can someone confirm that?

I see there are auctions here, but I likely will run it on a different site unless someone here tells me this is the best place to do so. The site that starts with an e is obv the biggest place for traffic, but I will go where I feel the best place to sell at the appropriate value is.

Anyhow, just looking for some info on the card in relationship to value.

Here's the scan:

http://i268.photobucket.com/albums/j...dJudge0001.jpg

Thanks.

If the cabinet were not trimmed it would probably be worth $1500 to $2000. In it's current state, if it is genuine, it is probably worth $250 to $500. I added the caveat "if it is genuine" since the mount colors look a little strange. It could be your scanner, it could be damage to the mount, but if I were buying it I'd want to see the card before pulling the trigger.

Appreciate the response. The color is a bit more "red" as opposed to the scan, but I understand what concerns one may have. I am positive i is genuine though and obv would guarantee $ back if not satisfied.

Thanks again!

Oh and as I read through- Lew gave me the original value and I see he seems to be well respected on here.

If you are talking about "Lew" Lipset, yes his knowledge is very respected. I would also respect the knowledge of someone who wrote the book on Old Judge, which is who answered your question in this thread. Good luck with it....

The photo looks genuine, and it's a nice image. But what color is the mount? Never saw one that looked quite like that.

And yes, the first person who answered your question knows more about Old Judges than anyone in the hobby.

Well I appreciate the feedback and the knowledge of Old Judge as well. I took more pictures for you all to review. I stand corrected on the redness when I re-inspected the card- the scan is correct. I am posting camera photos now instead of a scan.

As far as being genuine, where it came from is a late 18, early 1900 family photo album (not mine). Really not questioning that it is real much as whether the colors are off due to fading etc.

Here are the camera photos including a side profile.

http://i268.photobucket.com/albums/j...7/IMG_0217.jpg


http://i268.photobucket.com/albums/j...7/IMG_0218.jpg

http://i268.photobucket.com/albums/j...7/IMG_0219.jpg

The photo quality is strong, a big plus for N173 collectors. It's a nice image.

Hmmmmmm......
 

Aside from the coloring of the mount that Jay already mentioned, I'm thinking it looks a little funky for other reasons.

The left and right edges of the pictures on the two N173s I own pretty much align with the outer edges of the Old Judge tag line at the bottom of the card. This one seems wider.

In addition, there is far more room between the right, left and top edge of the picture and the right, left and top edge of the mount on my cards than there is on this one.

I think you are kind of questioning whether it is a real card. I highly doubt that someone would fake a card and chop it, but I guess there are all kinds of weird in this world and that's why I posted to get an understanding of what I actually have. Once again though, it was in an album from the right era- i think it would be far too much trouble to someone to try to fake this card for a whopping $250 -$500 when it is a player that looks to be low tier in regards to value. Reviewing other N173s there looks to be inconsistency in all their makes so to me it doesn't catch me as too strange this one has some difference as well.

I assume by mount, the reference is to the board it is attached to which is an amber red color as seen from the side profile. The bottom edge where cut is much whiter however.

Maybe it is so rare that it is worth billions due to it's uniqueness. :D

Just Comparing
 

It's very hard to tell from scans what's real and what's not, so I'm simply drawing comparisons to the two I can actually hold.

The N713s do come on red mounts, so that seems to be a good sign even though your scans don't look red. Is there any trace of gold around the top, left or right edges of the mount?

No, not that I can see. The mount is tapered from bottom to top though.

The photo looks real to me based on the scan, but a scan is not foolproof. I still don't understand why that mount is a grainy gray color.

Grey mounts generally date to the 1890s and later.