First, being a professional is no criteria for a baseball card. However, yes. The 1863 Grand Match souvenir tickets paid the players whose images appeared on the tickets.

ok, another vote for a ticket being a baseball card.....and who makes any of us the ultimate person to say what a pro or a card is? Just as you think the Red Stocking schedule cards are schedules I think the tickets are tickets. But again, I think it's semantics..and it's all ok with me. :)

Are there individual cdv's of 1869 Cincinnati players in uniform known to exist?

Hi Jay,
I agree with you regarding conventional card definitions. That is why I argued that N167s are the only ones that need no further explanation or defense with regard to actually being a card rather than something else.

I would also argue, as I did in my Old Cardboard article on the set that the most reasonable date of issue for the N167 set is 1885, thus pre-dating even KBats.
JimB

The 1871 NY Clipper Ad makes more sense now - rather than advertising current teams and 'leftovers', it was possibly advertising current teams, and some 'great' teams of the past;i.e-possibly issuing them for the first time, or they were issued sporadically over a 2-3 year period.