Clipped "cards" and cleaning "cards"

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Posted By: ramram

What are your thoughts on "this side" of the board with regard to clipped cards? What about cleaning a card?

For instance, I've purchased a couple of Old Judge cabinet cards that have the bottom clipped off. To me, I'm buying the albumen image and not the ad on the bottom of the cabinet card anyway and the cost was a fraction of what it would have been.

What about cleaning a cabinet card? I treat it like artwork and have no problem with cleaning it up, whereas most true card collectors treat it like a patina and leave the grime. I've got another OJ cabinet card (clipped) that had 100+ years of serious grime on it. I took a moist tissue and cleaned it up and it looked like a completely different image.

Rob M.

Clipped cabinet card:

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Posted By: Dan Bretta

To me the image is the most important thing so I think any type of cleaning that improves the card without damaging it is okay by me. I don't particularly like clipped cards, but the image is still the most important aspect. I think of Old Judge cards more as photographs than cards so if I can pick up a nice 19th century baseball image cheaply because it's skinned, trimmed, clipped, et cetera I will.

These are skinned

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Posted By: barrysloate

Depends on the issue. An Old Judge cabinet with the ad clipped off the bottom is significant. A CdV with the corners clipped to fit in a CdV album is less important.

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Posted By: ramram

Ahhh, but Barry, I think that is where the card collecting mentality comes in. Other than identification help, what does that ad do for the image? If that albumen image had just been mounted to a plain mount would it be any different? Answer - Only if you're a card collector!!!!!!

Rob M.

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Posted By: Corey R. Shanus

As regards cabinets/cdvs, I regard them first and foremost as photographs. Therefore I would have no problem having them cleaned. In regard to trimming, for those items that fall within the baseball card genre (e.g., N173s), trimming can have a significant impact on value. However, in regard to me deriving pleasure out of owning the item, clarity and contrast of the image is much more important than condition of the mount. If there is an image I want that has a great photograph but a crummy mount (e.g., trimmed), I can still be okay about adding it to my collection. Sure I would prefer that the mount not have condition issues and pay more for one as such, but I still would be willing to buy the one with the bad mount. Not so with an image that has mediocre photo contrast and/or resolution. That one, regardless how pristine the mount might be, is something I would not add to my collection.

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Posted By: ramram

Corey - That is what is so humorous to me about the card grading services. So far, they don't seem to consider the image at all. You can get a completely faded image that grades an 80, whereas, you can get a perfect image with a bad condition mount that grades 10.

In the big picture, yes, I too am careful about the condition of the mount only for the sake that I will have to someday sell the image. Likewise, if I pick up a card issue, such as an OJ, I do like it to have the ad and not be skinned but I feel much different with the larger images (cabinets, etc.)

Rob M.

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Posted By: barrysloate

I don't consider myself a card guy and prefer photography over cards, but an N173 with the ad trimmed bothers me, for whatever reason. I can still enjoy the photo but I would shy away from buying it. Just an idiosyncrasy I guess.

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Posted By: Corey R. Shanus

I couldn't agree with you more. Grading of 19th century blank-backed photographic cards is essentially useless other than to opine if the card is original or has been altered. No weight is given to the quality of the image, and that in a nutshell is by far the most important aspect to the card.

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Posted By: Clint

Photographs were developed in water so I have no problem with cleaning them.
If it's a card from Kansas I don't care about the mount just the picture. Yes it's nice to get a "mint" card but hell these were made 100 to 140 years ago and usually are unique or at best rare anyway. Grading mounted photos and postcards are a joke to me except to say they are genuine.