Different "Colors" for Old Judges

[GregMitch34]

I won an auction for a quite attractive "reddish" colored Old Judge last night, an SGC 70, which set me to wondering: Is the value of somewhat tinted Old Judges (you know, pinkish or orangeish or goldish etc.) a little higher or lower than the sepia/brown norm?

How and why did they get tinted? Why are some of the same player and pose somewhat tinted and others not?

[oldjudge]

Greg-so many questions in such a shorts post. Let me try to answer a few. First, value will depend on image quality, not color. Often pinkish images have lower clarity so they are worth less than cards with normal images. I have some cards with purplish images that have excellent photo clarity. I would expect these to sell at levels consistent with this clarity level. As to why cards have these tints, the only thing I know is that during this period photographers were experimenting with adding tints to photographs. This may have been Goodwin's foray into this area. I have observed, as you have, that certain players are more likely to come with tinted cards than others. I could only guess that they were on the sheets when these tests were taking place, but this is just a guess.

[Matthew H]

The only thing I have to add is that I would pay a premium for a tinted card with outstanding photo quality because the combination doesn't seem to happen often and I like the look.

[cyseymour]

I would say that yellow/gold tint is most common, followed by pink tint, with purple tint being most rare. Seems that the tints were used predominantly in 1889-90. It was probably an effort to spruce up the set and add a new dynamic to keep it fresh in the eyes of collectors.

It will always be about image quality with OJ's, but the colored tints are interesting. Some tints are so strong that they can obfuscate the image on the card. But overall, I would say that the varying tints just add another dynamic to an already charismatic and unusual set.

[GregMitch34]

Here's the card I was referring to, for example.


http://www.net54baseball.com/attachm...1&d=1358396070

[packs]

Wow that's a nice one.