1966 James T Elder vs Jim Rowe Postcards - is there a difference?
 

I was reading up on 1966 James T Elder Postcards while working on my Twins team checklists, and came across a question I'm hoping someone can help me with. Trading Card DB has a set listing for the 1966 James T Elder Postcards series which is where I first learned that these are out there. That led me to do further investigation to try to find out if the postcards were numbered or not, and I came across Keyman Collectible's set listing, which is also labeled as 1966 James T Elder Postcards.

From here though it gets a little murky. In the description of the listing, Keyman shares some background on on who Jim Rowe is (the photographer of the pictures for the postcards) and who James T Elder is (a dealer that distributed the postcards via mail order). Where I get confused is when Keyman discusses the numbering on the back of the cards - as I understand it, James T Elder added a number stamp on the back of the postcards for cataloging purposes. However, further in Keyman's description, they show some pictures of postcards labeled as either Jim Rowe, or James T Elder. There are a few visible differences between the two:

1. Jim Rowe postcards have no catalog number on the back whereas James T Elder postcards do
2. Jim Rowe postcards are full bleed images/no borders and no player signature, whereas James T Elder has both borders and signatures

https://i.imgur.com/lnhElGyl.png

In comparing this to a handful of the images in TCDB's gallery, though, there is a mix - they are labeled as James T Elder, have borders and no player signature, but do not have a catalog number stamped on the back.

Through all of that, I'm a little confused of what exists. If I'm understanding the history correctly, it seems like Jim Rowe produced the postcards, and they were then distributed by James T Elder (and got a catalog stamp added at that time). But that also doesn't seem quite right based on the images on the Keyman set description

I'm hoping someone can help shed some light on if there are multiple versions of these postcards that exist, or what I should include/how I should label these cards in my personal catalog. I tried to do some research on this myself, but there doesn't appear to be a whole lot out there. I did come across this thread on the forums from a few years ago which is very interesting, but does not answer my questions about the set itself. Appreciate any info you may have to share!

While I can't answer your postcard question, I can say that Jim Elder was the first dealer I ever bought vintage cards from (back in 1973). Mentioning him brings back memories

I wish I still had some of the price lists I got in the mail from him back then.

I don't think that is good information as a rule. I've had Rowe PCs with his handwriting on the backs that have borders.

Hmm, good to know. To your knowledge, is there an actual difference between Rowe postcards and Elder postcards? Or are they more or less equivalent, at least for this 1966 release?

While looking over the images of the Elder postcards in the link above, it looks to me like a lot or maybe all of the images used were taken by Norman Paulson of Baseball Photo Service in St Pete. They all have that Paulson "look", posed, waist high, dugout background......

I dunno, I just know that some Rowe PCs have the borders.

Thanks for the replies, everyone. It looks like this is going to remain a mystery for now. For my Twins inventory, I just listed them all as one common set for now. I will update the thread if I come across any more info on this in the future