OJ ? about color/tone

[Archive]

Posted By: Adam J. Baxter

I actually posted a thread on this forum about this very same topic not long ago. I was curious as to why some vintage card sellers would attach a premium to pink toned N172's, when it was common knowledge for many around the hobby that the pink toning was the result of the photograph deteriorating over time. Lew Lipset had originally indicated in his encyclopedia that poor photo quality was commonplace among 1890 cards. As a result, It's not unusual to find 1889-1890 N172's that are pink, faded or out of focus. In fact, just about every pink N172 that I have owned or seen is either faded or out of focus. I also believe (and Jay Miller please correct me on this if I'm wrong) that many of the known Player's League cards tend to have a pink tint and poor photo quality, as they were produced late in the N172 run. One of the origins of the pink deterioration, assuming that is what causes it, could be traced to fact that the photos themselves were produced a couple of generations after the originals, thus resulting in a substandard image and quality. Lew touched on this subject and I think Jay also did in one of his VCBC articles on Old Judges. Maybe it is possible that Goodwin experimented with dye, but as Jay pointed out there is no way to know for sure. It's my opinion that pink tinting is a condition problem for N172's and that pink tinting should be held to the same standard as other condition problems and that there should NOT be a premium attached to the card's value.