Several questions about 19th century baseball cards & collectibles

[drcy]

Some CDVs and cabinet cards were sold commercially, but most were just normal photos. The ones that were most likely sold commercially will be of famous subjects and well known commercial galleries such as Sarony, Mathew Brady, Carl Horner, J.Wood and others.

Most non-commercial CDVs and cabinet cards are unique or close to. Most other cabinet cards and CDVs are rare, perhaps a handful at most at most. Some CDVs of obviously commercial subjects such as Abe Lincoln and Queen Victoria are fairly plentiful.

Offhand, I can't think of a non-baseball card CDV or cabinet card that has more than a few tens in existence.

Harper's and Leslie's woodcuts were very much collected-- that was almost the point of the magazines--, but are pretty plentiful.

Most well known lithograph trade cards are as plentiful as normal baseball cards, but there are rare ones.

A post I wrote for SABR's Baseball Cards Research Committee a year or two back: Are CDVs and Cabinet Cards Baseball Cards? Yes, No and Maybe