Unlicensed material is now vintage, I guess, since there is a lot of it pre-1980. Of course, many of the prewar issues would be politely characterized as unlicensed.
I'm gonna guess ESCO didn't pay Ruth or the Yankees or even the photographer.
I've been collecting that sort of stuff since I was a kid when I got my first TCMA cards, but it didn't really garner much respect until relatively recently.
Now, there is a market and demand for older collector issues.
As for the Helmar and other ACEO [Art Cards Editions and Originals] issues, they are not quite the same as the classic unlicensed cards we older farts all think of from our childhoods. They exploit a fine arts loophole in copyright and trademark law, which probably accounts for ACEO manufacturers getting away with them.
I actually sold quite a few of them at the August show I worked in Burbank. Collectors seem to appreciate nice looking cards regardless of whether they are 'Broders'; Topps even figured that out. It looks like most of the Topps fantasy cards like Topps Project 2020 are ACEOs with licenses.
