Posted By:
davidcyclebackIf the photo can be dated and identified as original/vintage (ala has proper stamp), I don't believe a missing paper tag lowers the value. The tags were sometimes taken off by the printers and editors or otherwise could innocently fall off, so a missing tag shouldn't cause lost sleep unless it is needed to authenticate the photo.
However, the captions on the tags are often important for saying who's who and what's what in the image. I had a lot of football photos, and I wouldn't have who were 70 percent of players if it didn't have captions. Also, I would know a scene was from the 1956 Sugar Bowl without the caption or that pic was from Jim Brown's last game .... A lot of these caption details raise value, as a scene known to be from the Sugar Bowl will be more that a scene from the 3rd regular season game, and a pic from from Brown's last game is worth more than a pic from the 3rd from last game.