4 by 5 glass negatives

[thecatspajamas]

Originally Posted by SAllen2556

What I don't get is why a type-1 photo of, say, Bobby Jones seems to have more value than the negative would.

Scott,
I'll let others weigh in with their thoughts as well, but you hit the nail on the head with that statement. In almost all cases, an 8x10ish Type 1 print of any given photo will sell for more than the original negative of the same shot. My theory on the reason being that while collectors like to have something as close to the original as possible, they also want to be able to look at the items in their collection, and negatives do not lend themselves to easy viewing enjoyment (you either have to scan them as you did, or have a modern print made). Unless they're planning to use the image commercially (most collectors aren't), most would just rather have a Type 1 print than to fool with all that.

All that said though, I think that you will find the "collector" market for negatives just starting to take off, though certainly with plenty of room to grow. Negatives depicting Hall of Famers, especially crisp, quality shots such as yours seem to be, are certainly worth more than a couple bucks apiece. Knowing who and when the shots are of definitely helps as well. I personally love working with negatives, as their quality and "resolution" is outstanding, allowing you to zoom in on the smallest details the way even a sharp print doesn't reveal.

[Runscott]

Originally Posted by thecatspajamas

Scott,
I'll let others weigh in with their thoughts as well, but you hit the nail on the head with that statement. In almost all cases, an 8x10ish Type 1 print of any given photo will sell for more than the original negative of the same shot. My theory on the reason being that while collectors like to have something as close to the original as possible, they also want to be able to look at the items in their collection, and negatives do not lend themselves to easy viewing enjoyment (you either have to scan them as you did, or have a modern print made). Unless they're planning to use the image commercially (most collectors aren't), most would just rather have a Type 1 print than to fool with all that.

All that said though, I think that you will find the "collector" market for negatives just starting to take off, though certainly with plenty of room to grow. Negatives depicting Hall of Famers, especially crisp, quality shots such as yours seem to be, are certainly worth more than a couple bucks apiece. Knowing who and when the shots are of definitely helps as well. I personally love working with negatives, as their quality and "resolution" is outstanding, allowing you to zoom in on the smallest details the way even a sharp print doesn't reveal.

I agree with everything Lance said. I have started watching the old glass negatives in auctions, but the prices still are too high for me - they have no value other than their ability to be used to create prints, and I can generally already buy prints that are similar to the negative images.

But I did recently buy a group of 5 large-format glass negatives of Willie Hoppe, simply because I collect his stuff and they were cheap. Unfortunately, due to size, my scanner won't even scan them.

Regarding your last statement about outstanding resolution: this is definitely true, and should have collectors of original prints that were supposedly made from glass negatives, questioning the ones that are low resolution. Such low-quality prints have a great chance of simply not being original, even if they were printed within a few days of the event and have the correct date stamp.

[D. Bergin]

Those are great, I love old glass negs, even though they can be a pain to handle and take care of sometimes.

I remember several years ago on Ebay I won a stack of large glass negs on ebay of several boxers. They were larger then the standard 4x5's, I think they were like 5x7.

Of course they were shipped in a bubble envelope with little protection and arrived to me sounding like a children's shake toy. Broken glass everywhere.

[billyb]

Scott,
Those are great photos, good ones of Johnson.

[sayheykid54]

Great slides. I left you a message.

[btcarfagno]

I think one or two of the auction houses had a fair amount of glass plate negatives at tbeir recent auctions. I will figure out which and link it here when I get a chance.

Tom C