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Posted By: E, Daniel

Earliest card is always very cool to gaze upon, but has its own problems.....does the player's image need to be in sports uniform, or are portraits ok (aka N172 Anson)? And if portraits are ok, at what point do you establish that the person was engaged in their playing career such that it was not just 'school' ball, or other organized adolecent activities, or a family snap? If Cobb is captured at 14 in the card recently posted - showing him with other older players just pre his professional career, what exactly do we call that card? At what point does a family pic. become a baseball card worthy of being called their first?
I would personally go with minor league prookie as being the earliest possible legitimate 'playing' card, and would be happy if it were recatagorized as in fact rookie. If no such image exists, then their first professional card would be the rc. Anything earlier is just a way cool image in my eyes.

And just to throw in again on the ageless slabbed/raw debate.....I've often thought that each side should be very happy the other exists, and celebrate both styles of collecting. Raw collectors make it possible to re-aquaint yourself with a card's living history in all its mustiness, and understand what it is to be a card. And Slab collectors act as curators for those same cards so that they may exist and be known by future generations. It can't be argued that the process of handling cards raw causes degrading of the paper itself, acids get into the stock which further break them down, surface flakes and wears, and the possibility of major tragedy such as tearing or complete loss much more likely while being passed around through older and younger hands. Being encased in plastic for me is much like putting a great vintage poster under uv protected glass and archived with the best acid free mounts. You get to still enjoy the image and lose yourself in its glory, but realize at the same time the importance of saving the remaining examples of original printings because they are so very special.....and they're still small enough to be easily palmed, turned around so that every suface is visible, and enjoyed - really!
Don't raw collectors want at least a few examples of each card in every issue protected thus, so that kids in 50 years time have the same opportunity to own and daydream about the game, the players, and history in general? Or if you can't have them raw, should no one be allowed to have them at all?


Daniel