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Posted By: Rhys

There is a rebacked N172 Anson on ebay right now with "Authentic" as he grade. I have also seen a few other like this lately so perhaps GAI is grading cards as authentic which have been restored/altered.

Also, I disagree on the cabinets are not cards argument, but it is just my opinion. I do not see any difference between a cabinet with a photographers advertisement on it being used to sell pictures to the photographer, or get people into his store than an advertisement for gum or tobacco on the bottom to get people to use their product. Most of these cabinets were not just taken once and given to players. These guys were celebrities and their cabinets were produced and sold to the public most of the time, especially photos of the player in uniform. You could have walked into the photographers store and said give me a keller cabinet, and they would have sold you one. hey probably had a sign outside that offered photos of the New York Giants for a price. These popular studio cabinets were advertising tools, the same as Old Judge cabinets. Only difference is the product is the picture itself and not gumor candy.

If the cabinet was produced wih an advertisement at the bottom which said, "Come to Duffy's Bar" it would be a trade card, used to advertise the bar just like Tobin lithograps. If it said, "Drink Duffys beer", it would definely be a card and I see little difference in the two. In both cases the card is being used to solicit business and is used the same way baseball cards were later.

I know others will disagree with me, but that the way I see it and always will. A good understanding of 19th century advertising can shed a lot of light on the subject.

Also, I have a friend you sent a complete ungraded gum set to mastro and they told him flat out they were going to "send it off to have it worked on". Kind of scary.

Rhys