wire photos

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Posted By: scott

i hope this thread is not out of line with the forum.i have the chance to buy a 1930's original wire photo of christy mathewson with the original news description on the back.the photo is from the early part of his career.i love the item but have no experience with buying photos.without seeing the photo(its in VG condition),do those of you with experience feel $100 is too steep a price?i know its tough for you to judge sight unseen and i guess what it comes down to is that i like the item.

thanks for any help on this,
scott

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Posted By: Richard Simon

A 1930's wire photo of Christy Mathewson, from the early part of his career, is NOT an original wire photo. It is either printed from a copy negative or was printed after the fact from the original negative.

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Posted By: scott

thanks richard for the info. dealer misinformation...saved me a $100.

thanks,
scott

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Posted By: scgaynor

You can have an original wire photo from the 1930s that pictures Christy Mathewson from the early part of his career. The wire photo is original, but an earlier image was used. I have a similar piece on ebay right now that ends today (Sunday). It is a wire photo from 1938, but it pictures Mathewson from the 1st decade of the 20th century.

Scott

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Posted By: leon

This kind of question is considered off topic and is perfectly ok to ask about as a board participant. regards

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Posted By: davidcycleback

News services sometimes made photos with earlier images (ala 1950 photo showing Ruth in 1919). Though they are not original and as valuable, they were official and made in limited numbers.

Due in part to his early Death, Mathewson is scarce photo wise. An old but later generation press photo of Mathewson would have some value. If the photo is indeed fromm the 1930s and the image is nice, $100 off hand sounds like a buyable price. It's important, though, to be confident that the photo is from the period mentioned. Meaning, if it turns out to be from the 1960s, it would be worth less. Though if you aren't certain of the age but the photo has an official stamp or caption on back you can at least be confident the photo is official.

For perspective, I once sold a 1950s-60s UPI photo of Mathewson pitching in the 1910s (with official UPI stamp on back) for $50. That's a comment on the scarcity of Mathewson photos and that even much later news service photos are still collectable. A high quality original 1900s or 1910s news service photo of Mathewson in a MastroNet auction will often sell in the high hundreds or over one thousand dollars.

[Archive]

Posted By: scott

thanks for the info.the dealer was a card dealer local who had no vintage at all(just stopped in to get a scd),and i saw it among the shiny cards.it looked nice but red flags were all over.i'm not knowledgable on the subject so i 'm going to pass.by the way scott i saw your matty on ebay..very nice.short on $$ right now unfortunately.

thanks again for info.
scott

[Archive]

Posted By: Julie Vognar

original--the photo has to be copied for the newspaper, but
they can still be interestiung, and a good buy. Here's a Gandil, with the 1926 story about Gandil saying how the White Sox ---to a man--paid a pitcher to pitch a certain way to a team in 1917, and another of Alexander being sort of held up by the Dean brothers...



(Gandil was playing for Chico--California--at the time; notice how the insignia on his hat--or SOMETHING--has been removed, and replaced by lines...)