There are many reasons to collect photos for me. Here are a few:
(1) There are some particularly nice images of the players in photos that you don't see in cards, some of which are very iconic.
(2) Also, sometimes, if you obtain the same photo of a player that was used to create one of their cards, it is a nice companion piece.
(3) In addition, there are sometimes photos of a player in a major league uniform that predate their "rookie" card, so this is an earlier rookie image.
(4) Sometimes a Type I photo of the player during his playing days is a much cheaper alternative than obtaining his card, and often offers a more appealing image of the player. For example, I collect Babe Ruth cards, but Ruth cards while he was playing for the Red Sox are exorbitantly expensive. A photo of Ruth during his Red Sox days is a much cheaper alternative although still expensive. Going even further, Ruth rookie cards are sky high, but you can sometimes obtain an image of Ruth during his rookie year at a better price.
(5) Finally, I like obtaining team photos of Ruth, and these are not really available in cards. One of the drawbacks of photo collecting is that there are no real "sets" so for set collectors who want some sort of completion, it can be difficult with photo collecting. However, if you collect team photos, you can think of it as a "set" since you just need one team photo for each year for the years you want. Once you obtain all of the team photos for the time period you are looking for, your "set" is complete. (Obviously there are often team photos from the same year w/ different images, but you can just choose the one you want.)
|