OJ Question

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Posted By: craig lankford

at iowa cub fanfest this weekend i picked up a bill traffley oj that i already had the pose for because the price was right. when i got home and put it next to my other one i noticed that althought the pose was the same the image was a bit different. the one that i already had shows traffley with his left toe next to a base. on the new one the base is missing and there is a little more space above the hands.

so my question is, how common is this for the oj card?

i'm sure this isn't a variation for pose, i'm just curious what others have seen that is similar. btw i love the gloves he is wearing.

here are some scans, i hate this new scanner it makes them look grainy.

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Posted By: barrysloate

Different croppings of the photo are fairly common with Old Judges.

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Posted By: Mike

Notice the difference in the space between his foot, and the word "Des" ? As noted, different cropping.

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Posted By: joe

The top OJ has Des Moines printed right next to his foot. The 2nd pose does not have that printing at all. Maybe I'm wrong , but that looks like a variation to me. the cards are cropped differently, but there is additional printing on the 1st card.

Joe

Ty Cobb, Spikes flying!

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Posted By: Joe_G.

Variations, quite common with the crude methods used to make Old Judge cards. While both of your examples are from 1889, the matte used to "frame" Traffley and 23 others (sheet of 24), was positioned slightly different on the original cabinet card. In one example the matte allows you to see the approaching ball to his hands and no base, in the other, the matte frames a lower portion of the cabinet card cutting out the baseball but showing the entire base. Different croppings of the original cabinet as suggested above could have contributed to this variation (original cabinets were cropped to near proper size and then framed with a matte).

The Old Judge advertising at bottom was usually either glued or pinned to the cabinets or matting with many variations coming from differing placement of names, mis-spellings, or even accidental omissions (no name). Many teams, such as "Clevelands" can be found as "Cleveland" (drop the s) and so on. Many opportunities for variations.

Best Regards,
Joe Gonsowski

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Posted By: craig lankford

thanks for the responses. cropping was my best guess as well. hadn't even noticed the des moines difference on the 2, lol. going to surely give it a home for quite some time regardless. i am still amazed by the amount of variation this issue has in regards to my small niche of only iowa teams.

here is the other traffley i got at ia cub fanfest, i was told it is a tougher variation. love these gloves.

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Posted By: Dan Bretta

Nice cards Craig. Did you get them for a good price or is there a premium on Iowa teams in your area?

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Posted By: craig lankford

the seller on the 2 was very eager. he wanted only premium quality cards from the 50s, "old cards", to him. he let them go for $70, was hard to conceal my excitment. there are 2 guys in the area that make sure i find little available and 2 or 3 more on the internet that are after the same ones i am. they make sure that i dont spend more than the wife would accept.

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Posted By: Dan Bretta

Wow, nice deal. Congrats.