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Joe_G.To summarize this and past discussions, the following can be stated:
1) Old Judge cards with a tint first appeared in 1889. The amount of tinting varies from barely noticeable to heavy and is always pink although the darker tints border on purple or even red (rarely seen). I'd love to see a tint that falls outside of pink in color. Other tints were used at the time but not sure you'll find it on an OJ card.
2) The (pink) tinted cards almost always have worse photo details hence generally undesirable.
3) The first year issue Old Judge cards for 1887, 1888, & 1889 (non-tinted versions), when new, had good image quality. Those that were re-issued were also generally decent photo quality, only slightly worse than the original issue year. It wasn't until 1890 that photo quality went to crap. Many of the 1890 cards are also tinted (like some of the 1889 examples) causing further image issues.
4) All Old Judges, regardless of year, tint, etc. exhibit some photo quality degradation associated with age. Light (sun light, even indoor light) is enemy number 1. Temperature & Humidity can also take its toll. Most of the light/faint image Old Judges today spent a portion of their life, perhaps much of it, exposed to light.
The above 4 points will help you better understand why there is so much variance in OJ image quality. Some of it is due to tinting vs non-tinting, year of issue (1890 sucks), and most importantly how it has been cared for over the last 120 years (displayed in sunlight or saved in a closed scrapbook).
Best Regards,
Joe Gonsowski