Recent Henry Yee eBay auction questions

[Zach Wheat]

Originally Posted by Lordstan

1) Is there a good online resource for better understanding the hobby of vintage baseball photo collecting? I saw the Fogel/Yee book on Amazon but it's over $40 dollars and I'm not sure I'm ready to fork over that amount yet since I'm just beginning my research into this area of collecting.

Fork over the money. This is one of the two best resources for understanding photographs. The other in an online? book written by our own Dr David Cycleback. Does anyone have the link? I can't find it.

2) The prices I saw paid for some of Yee's slides and negatives seemed awfully high to me. Do/can buyers turn around and reproduce photo's for re-sale from these slides/negatives? It looked like most of the slides were originally from famous photographers. I'm just curious because I have an old slide projector and thought I would bid on a few slides only to find out that they were being bought at much higher prices than I expected.

Within the photography category, negatives are a new field of interest, but it appears people certainly are interested. There is another thread speaking about image rights regarding negatives. If you search, it will answer your questions.

3) Is vintage sports photo collecting increasing dramatically as a hobby? I saw an online PSA article that implied that it is, but PSA is in the business of trying to authenticate sports memoribilia. So I suppose it was a bit of a biased article.

Recently this category of collectibles has shot up. They're visually attractive, easy to both store and display, and they can be very hard to get(especially if you're looking for a specific pose/subject).

Here is the link to David's web site. He has a few articles on line about photography & judging authenticity, etc.::>

http://www.cycleback.com/

ZWheat

[D. Bergin]

Originally Posted by Zach Wheat

Here is the link to David's web site. He has a few articles on line about photography & judging authenticity, etc.::>

http://www.cycleback.com/

ZWheat

Yup, with respect to the Yee/Fogel book, David's reference guides were always my first fallback when I started getting into photos over a dozen years ago or so. They are required reading for any photo collector.

I'm not a big fan of the Type Classification system that Yee and Fogel tout in their book, but it's worth whatever it costs to obtain a copy, just for the exhaustive research they put into back stamps and the history of each news organization.

[billyb]

ZWheat,
Thank You, I have read parts of David's site, and just read about authenticating, which I have not read before.
Judging the authentication, with no stamps is not easy, but I know the history of the above photo. Judging what David says, and the clarity, and what I know about the photo, it is a type one photo.
That was a question of mine, is this photo a type one, or just an unknown photo. But without the backing, it still hurts the value.
One of these days, this photo will go up for sale, and somebody will get a great photo for a good price.

[obcbeatle]

Originally Posted by Zach Wheat

Here is the link to David's web site. He has a few articles on line about photography & judging authenticity, etc.::>

http://www.cycleback.com/

ZWheat

Thanks for sharing this link. Lots of good information like the names of the most common U.S. news and photo services, ACME, etc. In conjunction with the YouTube video about the wire services that Lance shared I've learned a lot. If fact, I bought my first wire photo and a negative last night on eBay. Can't wait till they arrive! Which leads me to a question ... does the Cycleback book(s) or Fogel/Yee book cover slides, negatives and transparencies? The transparencies and negatives in the last Yee auction really caught my eye. There were some color SF Giants slide transparencies that I bid way too low on that were beautiful (Mays/Cepeda ...). I lived in SF from 1965-1971 and saw Mays, McCovey et al at "The Stick" many times. So when I saw those slides and remembered I had a slide projector I did a quick bid on a few of those Yee slides. Anyway ... I was just wondering if the Cycleback and Fogel/Yee books covered that type of film format? I've been Googling today to find out about how to deal with negatives and slides these days (digital scanning, etc.) because I also got out some of my old family photo's and found some negatives. So my interest is piqued :-) Thanks again for sharing. This board/thread is full of a lot of expertise!

[thecatspajamas]

Originally Posted by obcbeatle

Which leads me to a question ... does the Cycleback book(s) or Fogel/Yee book cover slides, negatives and transparencies?

The Fogel/Yee book has a brief section on the various photographic processes and mentions transparencies, slides (which are transparencies mounted in a cardboard frame), and negatives, though usually only circumstantially as it discusses the prints produced from them. If I remember correctly, some of David's writings go into a little more detail, as far as how they are produced, but I can't recall offhand if that material is online or in one of his books (or both).

If you're talking about identifying who/where/when an image came from by looking at the negative or transparency, I don't recall ever seeing much on that. Some photographers will make notations directly on the image, some along the edge of the negative, and some even stamp a logo onto the negative so that it shows on the printed image. In most cases that I've seen though, it's either blatantly obvious (as in a signature or stamped logo), or impossible (as in simple block lettering identifying the subject) to tell who the photographer was based only on markings on the negative.

The one exception that comes to mind is George Burke, who used a very specific file coding with his negatives that referred to a combination of league, team, and player codes to give some organization to his files. In that case, you can match up the coding to the catalog listings of his player photos to either determine who the player is (if you know it's a Burke photo) or if it is actually a Burke photo (if the player depicted matches the catalog coding for that player). Other photographers may have done something similar that I am not aware of, but their coding would have been a different "system," and I don't recall ever reading it being addressed anywhere.

I've read a few websites and blogs aimed more at photographers or people researching family histories that had a usable tip here and there, but nothing comprehensive dealing with dating or identifying negatives or transparencies that I can recall (though I would welcome such a resource if anyone else knows of one).

[billyb]

Originally Posted by obcbeatle

Thanks for sharing this link. Lots of good information like the names of the most common U.S. news and photo services, ACME, etc. In conjunction with the YouTube video about the wire services that Lance shared I've learned a lot. If fact, I bought my first wire photo and a negative last night on eBay. Can't wait till they arrive! Which leads me to a question ... does the Cycleback book(s) or Fogel/Yee book cover slides, negatives and transparencies? The transparencies and negatives in the last Yee auction really caught my eye. There were some color SF Giants slide transparencies that I bid way too low on that were beautiful (Mays/Cepeda ...). I lived in SF from 1965-1971 and saw Mays, McCovey et al at "The Stick" many times. So when I saw those slides and remembered I had a slide projector I did a quick bid on a few of those Yee slides. Anyway ... I was just wondering if the Cycleback and Fogel/Yee books covered that type of film format? I've been Googling today to find out about how to deal with negatives and slides these days (digital scanning, etc.) because I also got out some of my old family photo's and found some negatives. So my interest is piqued :-) Thanks again for sharing. This board/thread is full of a lot of expertise!

OCB,
What a great educational thread you started. Any newby into Sports photography collecting can read your thread and obtain a boat load of information. Good job, and thank you.

Billyb

[obcbeatle]

Originally Posted by billyb

OCB,
What a great educational thread you started. Any newby into Sports photography collecting can read your thread and obtain a boat load of information. Good job, and thank you.

Billyb

Thanks Billyb ... I'm sure learning a lot from this thread too. So nice to have people willing to share their thoughts on a part of the hobby that I'm not as familiar with as collecting baseball cards. I think collecting old sports (and maybe movie/music star) photo's will be a new hobby of mine. The thing I find most fascinating is the quantity and variation of photographs between 1900 and the early 1960's (my main era of interest) that are available. Kind of intimidating really. But there are so many beautiful photographs, poses, etc. ... many of which I've never seen before ... and many I didn't even know existed because I was so implanted in the world of baseball cards. Anyway ... this sort of leads me to another question I forgot to ask in my last post ... are there any other photograph auctions like Henry Yee's (eBay or otherwise) that I should keep an eye out for in the future? I know Henry Yee has another one coming up this summer. Thanks again to everyone for their feedback!

[billyb]

Originally Posted by obcbeatle

Thanks Billyb ... I'm sure learning a lot from this thread too. So nice to have people willing to share their thoughts on a part of the hobby that I'm not as familiar with as collecting baseball cards. I think collecting old sports (and maybe movie/music star) photo's will be a new hobby of mine. The thing I find most fascinating is the quantity and variation of photographs between 1900 and the early 1960's (my main era of interest) that are available. Kind of intimidating really. But there are so many beautiful photographs, poses, etc. ... many of which I've never seen before ... and many I didn't even know existed because I was so implanted in the world of baseball cards. Anyway ... this sort of leads me to another question I forgot to ask in my last post ... are there any other photograph auctions like Henry Yee's (eBay or otherwise) that I should keep an eye out for in the future? I know Henry Yee has another one coming up this summer. Thanks again to everyone for their feedback!

I wish I could help you, but I am new into this also. But I do want to say that I seen a post someone put into another thread. He stated photos were like the new '52 Topps.
That statement hit home. When the '52 Topps came out, they sold very well, but if we would have known then what we know now, we would have bought up every 52 topps we could find.
The vintage photos, say pre 1960, they are out there now, but before long, they will become harder to find. I missed out on the 52 Topps, and Microsoft stock in my lifetime. These vintage photos may not be quite up to that level of collectability or value............or will they?

[perezfan]

Originally Posted by billyb

I wish I could help you, but I am new into this also. But I do want to say that I seen a post someone put into another thread. He stated photos were like the new '52 Topps.
That statement hit home. When the '52 Topps came out, they sold very well, but if we would have known then what we know now, we would have bought up every 52 topps we could find.
The vintage photos, say pre 1960, they are out there now, but before long, they will become harder to find. I missed out on the 52 Topps, and Microsoft stock in my lifetime. These vintage photos may not be quite up to that level of collectability or value............or will they?

They may be like 1952 Topps... but perhaps '52 Topps in the year 1995. In other words, the current day is to Vintage Photography as the year 1995 was to 1952 Topps.

Still lots of room to grow, but already well developed and on many collectors' radar. In this Memorabilia Forum alone, over a third of the threads appear to involve some aspect of vintage photography. And vintage photos are normally included in all of the major Catalogue Auctions. Rare photos with good subject matter have been realizing huge prices for quite a while. I've actually seen a bit of a plateau in prices realized lately.

Plenty of helium remains in the balloon, but it was actually "inflated" a few years back. Henry, Marshall, David et al have done a brilliant job enabling it to reach it's current heights. It's a great and fascinating segment of the hobby

[billyb]

PerezFan,
Big difference, and that is knowledge. In 1952, no one had any idea that cards were be of such value. They were put into rubber bands, bicycle spokes and thrown flipped against walls. We now know of what potential value they could be.
The now vintage 1995 cards are being saved in large numbers. The vintage photo, many have been destroyed or lost already (like the 52 Topps).
What is for sale the most now, Vintage photos or '52 Topps cards?
Answer is vintage photos, but as these photos end up in collections, they will start to disappear.
I know comparing photos to cards is not really a good comparison, but I cannot think of a better comparison at this time.