Can we finally lay the "Type I" photo BS to rest?

[drc]

It's an interesting example.

Most N172 Old Judges aren't type 1 photos, as the images aren't technically first generation. But their collectibility is in their being antique baseball artifacts from the 1880s, not the generation of the image. That's just a side note, not a grand moral statement about news photographs. In ways, baseball cards and original baseball photos are apples and oranges. Most, or at least many, know the image of Honus Wagner used on his T206 Honus Wagner was shot several years earlier. That knowledge clearly hasn't affected its collectibility. But, as I said, a baseball card is different than an Ansel Adams photograph. Baseball cards, by definition, were mass produced commercial items for kids. One would be goofy in the head to assume that every Goudey was hand painted and every Topps was an original photograph. They were sold with gum for in grocery stores, after all