Sorry for the long post. These are the remainder of my 1888s.

1888 Minneapolis Millers

Wow Kevin. All of those have amazing photos. Great group.

Kevin-You know N173s really well. Have you ever seen a Whites cabinet before?

No, not until the brown mount Hines in REA.

Nice cards Kevin!, the 1888 Minneapolis cards are a bit easier to collect than the other 1888 Western Association teams with most of the players/poses being Fa cards.

Regarding Western Association cabinets, we do know that in general the 1889 cabinets are more common than 1888 which would suggest the most difficult WA teams would be Chicago Maroons, Kansas City Blues, and St. Louis Whites (these three would not make it to 1889). Of these three teams, St. Louis Whites was the first to disband (June 20th of 1888) which likely led to extremely few cabinets being ordered. The new for 1889 teams (Sioux City, Denver, & St Joseph) may follow with the teams that played both years being more likely to surface.

I just caught your last comment on the Nicholson . . . the Nicholson I used as an Fb example might be from your collection (or Burdick, LOC, etc.). That Fa/Fb/Fc composite is from ten years ago when we were gathering lots of images for the book. I will re-create Fa vs Fb vs Fc from my collection (all Detroit) :)

There is another reason for the rarity of Whites' cabinets. The Whites were set up as a farm team for the hometown Browns, with Von der Ahe owning both teams. The Browns were the power of the American Association and the Whites were a weak squad. Von der Ahe saw the folly of his idea and quickly folded the team. If you were a baseball fan in St Louis in 1888, you most probably were a Browns fan. It is hard to conceive that a St Louis native who had saved up coupons to get an Old Judge cabinet would not choose a player from the champion Browns.
Interestingly, the one year teams from the 1888 Western Association all were in cities where the competed with an American Association or National League team. The Western Association learned from the 1888 experience; the new 1889 teams were their city's sole representative in the big leagues.

Kevin--Which team is next? Amazing collection!
Whoever won the big Old Judge lot in REA should have some to post (or future winners in Sterling).

I agree, amazing stuff Kevin, that's why you're Mr. NJ-OJ. Why didn't you include your Jordan card in with the Minneapolis group, or was it posted earlier and I missed it?

Hi John! Being Mr NJ-OJ is no small deal. He has to compete with you half the year. BTW, is Jordan wearing catcher's gear or a hasmat suit?

He's actually wearing his turtle shell pajamas made from a real turtle.

Kevin holds the title. I let him off the hook for awhile as I save up for a large non-OJ purchase

Very kind of you, John, to take the pressure off me for a while, but you're still not getting your hands on my Corcoran. :p

And thanks, too, for rubbing it in that Jordan is one of the HUNDREDS of N172s I don't own.

Let me know when you're ready to take the OJ-NJ title so I can move to a state where there's less competition - maybe Florida! :D

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but neither of you guys is in the running for Mr FL-OJ.

Does anybody know who this is?

So, what's my best bet for state supremacy - Rhode Island? South Carolina? Idaho? Utah? Alaska?

S Dakota might be OK, I can't think of any big OJ collections there. Maybe you should skip states. How about Mr. Guam-OJ?

My wife likes the beach, but I think Guam is a little too close to Kim Jong Un for either of our likings.

So, who's up for some 1889 Western Association cards?

1889 Denver Grizzlies/Mountaineers

Maroons
 

Here are a few

Beautiful cards Dave! Well Kevin, you can cross Washington off your Mr OJ list.

WHOOOEEE! I love the Nicholson and McCauley!

Now that is a treat for anyone who has collected Old Judges for awhile, very nice!

Wow, Kevin and David.....thanks for sharing.

Another handful
 

Jay, Joe, Kevin and pro9,

Thanks for the nice comments. Fun to contribute!

Here are a few more Maroons, and a few Millers.

More great cards Dave. I thought I'd show a photographer's proof for a Crogan Maroons pose. In the following post the actual card is shown.

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Those are great looking cards, guys.

Jay, I love when the N173 (or cabinet proof) and N172 are shown together. I don't have many of those instances, but I do have the matching N173 and N172 of George Van Haltren and the matching N172 and Gilbert & Bacon proof of Gus Weyhing.

Let's keep this thread rolling...

1889 Saint Paul Apostles

Nice cards Kevin! I like that 1889 script card of Werrick.

Can't let this thread die just yet...

1889 Sioux City Cornhuskers

Not to derail this thread, but any idea what would happen to these beautiful curled OJs if they were smashed flat--in a slab, for instance? It seems like you'd crack the surface.

I imagine some of the OJs currently in slabs were curled at some point; does it take time for damage to appear, or is it okay to flatten them?

Bill

I have one card that was curled that developed a crease down the center in the process of putting into a holder (Beckett btw, due to flattening). The other issue I've noticed is image fading even when not exposed to light. Both issues have been the exception for me, hence I keep collecting them.

Not sure on these, but I have seen more than one old judge type card get cracked when flattened out. Others will know more but in my experiences they seem brittle. I am sure the OJ collectors have lots of tales....

I guess I have been exceptionally lucky, but I do not recall having any N172s that were so curled that I feared what might happen if I slabbed them.

I will say, however, that if I DID have one that curled, I would probably opt to not send it for encapsulation.

Here are a few Sioux City

Here are a few more but all Des Moines. Have a DM Owen Patton N173, will dig out and post later. Last I knew it was uncatalogued. Gotta say I love this thread. Keep the pics coming. If anyone wants to part with any DM or SC old judges in any condition,please let me know.

Craig

Nice group Craig! I would love to see the cabinet.

Haven't come across the Patton, but here is Schildknecht. I like the little crooked tree by his right knee.

Craig

Nice assemblage!

I like that you have the matching N172 and N173 od Schildknecht.

Sorry for coming late to the party, just didn't see this earlier. Unlike a lot of you others, I don't always have the nicest N172s but, I have a few. I believe these include all the Western Association players I have. Sorry if I duplicated any earlier ones already posted.

By the way, on the second to the last OJ posted, Sowders with KC, you'll notice what appears to maybe be some paper loss on the front at the bottom where the first part of the words "Cigarette" and "Goodwin" are missing. That is not the case though as there is no paper missing and somehow those letters never got included as part of the picture. I don't remember seeing that before on any other OJs. Is that something normal that has occurded with other OJs or maybe it is just a known issue with this particular card? Curious if anyone has any thoughts or input on that. Thanks.

Nice cards everyone.

Hello Bob,

Your Sowders card is neat, could be explained by something/anything that would have blocked sunlight through the glass plate negative while developing the print. Could have been a drop of ink on the negative, a corner of overlapping paper, etc. I have a Stump Wiedman OJ with the left side (well beyond the border) omitted in a fashion similar to the bottom corner of your Sowders.

Thanks Joe,

Interesting and good to know. I think I have couple more WA OJs buried at home still. If I can find them I'll scan and post tomorrow. Thanks for the info. Just out of curiosity, does the missing print add or even detract from the value, or it really a neutral effect?

I suppose if you have OCD [or you are a professional third party grader ;)],the missing letters would bother you. Speaking only for myself, as long as the picture is nice, that "defect" wouldn't bother me.

Doesn't bother me at all. Was just curious if something like that was viewed as a betterment or detriment to value for OJs. I know how some T206 collectors go crazy over errors and misprints and in some cases will pay ridiculous amounts for them. While similar error and misprint issues in other cards types go mostly ignored and/or are actually considered as reducing the card values as those cards are now considered imperfect/damaged in some way. Agree the image is the main factor. Just hadn't seen another OJ like that with missing printing though and wondered how that would be perceived/valued by other OJ collectors.

And found a couple more Western Association cards. A different pose for Willis, and another St. Louis Whites player, Crooks.