Old Judge Error Card? and their Premiums
 

Since I recently joined the ranks of the Old Judge collectors, I'm always learning or trying to learn something new about the cards. Scouring the auctions and talking with the collectors I've been able to grow my Ohio subset to 10 in a pretty short period of time. Every once in a while I come across a card I question if its really worth the asking price or is it real. That occurred today on a Wild Bill Weidner listed on eBay. The BIN price seemed steep so I took to VCP to get some information. This is where I came across a Wild Bill with his name listed as "Eidner." Looking back at the auction I realized this is a known error card (and I read the description that told me the same. I was on my phone and only looking at the images and title.) There was no value for the "Eidner," but Weidner examples of the same grade are approximately 1/3rd the BIN price.

Thinking about this card and the McGreachery :D being auctioned by REA what decides the premiums on error cards like this? I understand the market has a big role in setting prices, but on cards that rarely come to market how do you decide what is a good investment price? Would a 3x increase of the non-error be reasonable?

There are many spelling errors in the Old Judge set..I think price is a function of rarity of that particular card and the player it pictures. The McGreachery in REA is pricey because of two things. It is Deacon White (a popular player and now HOFer) and there have only been two found. Not sure about your card, maybe Jay or Joe can chime in here about the rarity of this particular card.

Joshua

Steve--there are really three types of errors in the Old Judge set. The first, and least interesting, are spelling errors in names. These happen a lot and usually don't carry much of a premium. For HOFers they carry a little more of a premium since more people collect variations of these. Probably the most interesting and valuable errors are misidentifications. The most common are the switching of names on certain Macullar and Maskrey poses. These only carry a moderate price premium. Others carry more of a premium ("Jim" Keefe cards, a hybrid between spelling error, and misidentification are very desirable cards). The McGreachery error is a misidentification (might have been intentional, might have been accidental) on a HOFer and is a portrait, and a very rare card (only two copies known). This card could easily be a six figure card and is probably the second or third most valuable HOF pose, after Anson in Uniform and Wright pose three. Falling between name spelling errors and misidentifications are wrong teams. These are interesting and can command relatively strong prices.

Thanks for the response. This will help greatly as I continue with my collection.


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Here is the first type of common error that Jay speaks of ... Farrer vs Farrar
Rob
:)

Jay M. - great explanation. Thanks for sharing your knowledge.....

Not sure how I missed this thread . . .

I agree with Jay and others. Very few collectors focus on error cards, the buyers are typically advanced set or team collectors who have expanded scope to include some of the correct and errant variations. The more significant mis-spellings garner a bit more interest, particularly those that rarely show up. Sometimes the mis-spelling is co-incident with a tough pose or team change variation and the card then certainly commands a healthy premium but its the rare pose or team change driving the value more so than the misspelling.

With McGreachery, its my belief that much of the value isn't so much due to the name on the card, but instead the subject matter (Deacon White) and the pose rarity. Deacon White's portrait is among the toughest poses in the OJ set and would command a significant premium regardless of whether the card named him as McGreachery or White.

I think the card's value would edge out Wright's rare portrait since Deacon has but one portrait pose, Wright has three different portraits, one being nearly identical to his rarest pose. Generally speaking, White is also more difficult subject matter than Wright (tougher to find one of Deacon's 9 poses than one of Wrights 3). Add on any potential bonus for the McGreachery mystery and I think it rises to the second most valuable card in the set (behind Anson in Uniform).

But your run-of-the-mill mis-spellings such as Shindle/Shindel, Weidner/Eidner, Swartwood/Schwartwood, etc. etc. command little if any premium. Even the comedic examples such as Genins/Genius command little premium because it is so common (supply and demand). That stated, I'm willing to pay a premium for any Detroit errors :)

Have we finally decided that the "McCreachery" as listed in the OJ Book, is in fact "McGreachery" with a "G" instead of a "C". I'm confused. Is the book right or wrong ? Thanks

There are a couple "cool" misspellings, one for example shows THOMAS POORMAN as "THOMAS POOR MAN" (instaead of THOMAS POORMAN).

Hello Mike,

It is McGreachery, the OJ book is wrong. The original post that explored the spelling and interpretation eventually circled back and corrected the spelling. See post #105.