Old Judge Book Scarcities

[oldjudge]

Jon--I don't think that is appropriate at this time, but I would be happy to try to answer any questions that people may have.

[judsonhamlin]

Since the Coughlin find goes some way to show there are no absolutes, is it realistic to think another new subject - a Cal League player or other ‘should’ve been included’ player - might crop up? I’m looking at you, Pop Snyder…

[oldjudge]

I’d say it is possible but not likely. Realizing the card or cards haven’t shown up for over 130 years, the odds for them showing up now isn’t good. That makes the appearance of the Coughlin all the more remarkable.

[sreader3]

I think there is an uncatalogued Dave Rowe portrait with the Denver team variation in the Denver Public Library collection which I brought to Jay and Joe’s attention several years ago. Almost certainly the only example of that variation. So previously unknown things do occasionally turn up, although—thanks to Jay and Joe’s exhaustive research—not that often.

[oldjudge]

Hi Scot! Team variations of a specific pose and unlisted poses still come up occasionally. What rarely shows up are new players or even new teams for a player (team previously unknown on any of the player's poses).

[insidethewrapper]

Jay: Just wondering . Why would a cigarette company spend all the money to produce a card ( production, printing, rent a studio, pay a photographer etc) and then only produce maybe 1-5 cards of that player ?

[trdcrdkid]

I have a pose that is listed but not illustrated in the OJ book (Hengle 223-6).

[oldjudge]

Originally Posted by insidethewrapper

Jay: Just wondering . Why would a cigarette company spend all the money to produce a card ( production, printing, rent a studio, pay a photographer etc) and then only produce maybe 1-5 cards of that player ?

If you are asking why certain cards are so rare today I don't have an answer. Perhaps the negative was broken early in production and not replaced.

[trdcrdkid]

Originally Posted by insidethewrapper

Jay: Just wondering . Why would a cigarette company spend all the money to produce a card ( production, printing, rent a studio, pay a photographer etc) and then only produce maybe 1-5 cards of that player ?

The Old Judge cards that survive today are a tiny fraction of those that were originally produced. I don’t know how many of each card were made, but I’m sure it was quite a bit more than 1 to 5, even for scarce cards.

And by the way, OJs weren’t printed; they consisted of very thin albumen photographic prints glued to cardboard and then cut into individual cards. The OJ book has a section on how they were produced.