Originally Posted by moeson
I just received, and greatly appreciate, this response from Michael Sokolow. It alleviates some concerns about the reprinted cards but don't think game collectors will be too happy:
Hi Howard,
Thanks for your thoughts.
We're looking into this matter. However, I hope you'll consider some factors that should limit the effects of our relaunch on the collector's market.
If you currently own a copy of Challenge the Yankees or its cards, you can of course be confident that it is an original. If it's already certified by PSA, you'll also easily be able to sell it to other collectors. So those who have purchased PSA-graded cards should not be affected at all.
To be sure, more people may be interested in buying new copies of the game, which are selling for a fraction of the original copies. However, Roger Franklin spent years developing the game for kids to enjoy. Collectors are more than welcome to sell CTY for hundreds of dollars, but our greatest concern is to make this available to regular folks who enjoy our game.
Nonetheless, consider that we're also helping existing owners of CTY cards and games by spending thousands of dollars to bring attention to Challenge the Yankees. Many Yankees fans and players of games like APBA and Strat-o-matic had never heard of CTY, but are now intrigued by it. So as a trader, you may find that there will be more demand for original cards and full games, which in turn means higher profits for you.
Furthermore, experienced authenticators should still be able to differentiate between the original cards and the relaunched edition. The two editions appear identical, but the cards' weight and material are not exactly identical. Manufacturing practices have changed over time, so those traits are never going to be duplicated on a mass scale across 50 years. The ink colors may even be noticeably different to the trained eye, though I'm not sure of that. That being said, we're hesitant to make the differences between the editions obvious to the average Joe. That's not to trick collectors, but rather for quality and legal reasons. That is, we're promising our fans an exact reproduction of the 1964 game, and there are legal limitations on our ability to amend the original game while still using licensed material (including player likenesses and team logos).
Thanks again for reaching out, Howard. Please know that we're considering your concerns and will do all that we can to avoid damaging the collector's market.
Best regards,
Michael Sokolow
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