Thoughts on Authenticity

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Posted By: Mr. Moses

there are a bunch out there - at least that's the feeling I have based on what I'm seeing. As I "won" a couple non- baseball ones I have been doing a bit of research - and if I remember (CRS) - I'll post what I find out about them. BTW - not sure if I mentioned - the set sold in the 900,00 range.
I used to like the Hartford show - a bit far from my NYC address - but ALWAYS found at least one good thing there including a full plate gambling tintype - and a pair of salvation army baffoons - one of which is my avitar . One time at the show I had to wait over an hour to enter because the fire department said the number of people exceeded the allowable # - those were the days....
In any event - bet there were quite a few of most of the labels he's hawking - only time will tell unless he's antsy - and the population numbers of the baseball sets is likely as great as any of the subject matter he's selling.
Joe Davidson was a dealer (authored a pair of pretty books - Smoker's Art and The Art of the cigar label) who bought out the stock of some cigar and caddie label factories around the time that the decorative arts market was looking for something interesting to place on their client's walls. Values of these went up exponentially in part because the art really was spectacular - but also in part because there came recognition of a speculative aspect and a collecting genre. This fed into what was already an existing small collectible market for these labels. After a few years - other than some core collectors and demand for certain topical labels - everything leveled off. I think the problem other than storage and display was finding out what the true production/survival numbers were to establish a "true" price point for a collector or investor. Additionally, all these buys yield near pristine examples - like any new/old stock item - diluting values and perception of value. Same with dese here puppies - although hopefully I'm wrong and the supply is limited.