Top Ten Part 2- Cdvs, Cabinets, Trade Cards, etc.

[benjulmag]

Originally Posted by bigfanNY

Are the Cy Young cabinets more valuable than the 1890 Just So. Or is that a card so excluded from this list? I agree on the 1871 Forest city image. Anson the big reason and that not a monetary but historical significance that Forest City played in the opening day game of the National Association in 1871 launching the first professional Baseball League.
Discussed many times here on Net54 are the period Woodcuts that depict many of these same players and teams for a tiny fraction of the price. A shame that a cabinet of the 1874 Boston team or better yet this image of the 1866 Arhletic of Philadelphia vs Atlantic of Brooklyn has yet to come to market as a photo.

It's an easy issue to get confused over but in 1871 there were actually two Forest City teams -- Cleveland and Rockford, and the first professional game in 1871 involved Cleveland; Anson played for the Rockfords. Cleveland's opponent was the Fort Wayne Kekionga team, which existed for that one season only.

I agree that woodcuts are a tremendous bargain compared to what other items sell for, and some of them as you point out show images not currently known in photographic form. That 1874 Boston cabinet in Gary's collection is my favorite 19th century team cabinet. It is an artistic pose depicting the best team of the period and on it were many HOFers and other important players.