Photo Question.

[Frozen in Time]

I tend to agree with all the comments posted thus far. The first thing that I consider when buying a photo is the image. If I like it, then I will buy it. However, other factors do come into play when I make the decision of what I am willing to pay.

Having said that, my collecting interests are quite different and much more narrow than most as I tend to focus primarily on early - 1949-1956 (with an emphasis on 1951), Type 1 images of Mantle.

These choices have obviously required a great deal of homework on my part aided by a number of publications, viewing the front and backs of thousands of photos in auctions and at shows, participation in numerous vintage photo threads on this forum and countless conversations with fellow collectors, in particular Henry Yee.

Whereas, there is still some healthy debate regarding the approximate two year time window for Type 1 photos, there is a learning curve for consideration of criteria such as news agency /photographer stamps, date stamps, emulsion and paper fiber composition, etc. If you enjoy this type of thing (which I do) you will ultimately be in a better position to judge the past history of any photo. I believe acquiring this knowledge provides as important a foundation for the collector as does determining the specific baseball history associated with each photo.

You will often come across photos which lack enough of the above mentioned "criteria" to make an "informed" judgement as to "Type". United Press International photos are particularly inconsistent after the acquisition of Acme and the merger with INS in 1958. Numerous, previously unstamped Acme or INS photos were stamped with the new UPI stamps and many bureaus did not keep up to date with newer versions of the stamping so a substantial overlap of the same stamp was quite common during this period. By the way, this also occurred, although much less frequently, with earlier INS and World Wide stamping.

I guess my bottom line for all of this is no different than what probably applies to all other areas of collecting:

1) Try to gain as much knowledge as possible.

and

2) Collect what you like.

All of the other factors "Type", history, vintage, original, etc. are primarily indicators of general market value and price.

Hope some of this helps.

Cheers,

Craig