1866 E.S. Sterry & Co. First Known Baseball Cards SGC - $250,000.00

[Archive]

Posted By: Anonymous

Assuming the 1867 date applies to the CDV, that would be one of the earliest known baseball cards. Has obvious advertising on it.

For some of the earliest baseball cards, they're known as genuine baseball cards but the exact year of creation is unknown. For example, some say the Peck and Snyder James Creighton is from 1865, others will say 1870. I don't think anyone knows for certain. Also, Peck & Snyder CDVs were sold over several years in the P & S catalog. Someone posted an ad a while back. You could buy a 1868 Brooklyn Atlantics card in 1870. All the Atlantics could have been made in 1868 and the leftovers in stock sold over the next years. That would be my guess what happened, but its also possible they made more after 1868. You don't know. Another interesting question is was the Peck & Snyder 1869 Cincinnati Reds trade card made in 1869 or 1870? As we all know, a Topps team card shows the team from the previous year.

So the earliest days of baseball cards are foggy and speculative. Though an 1867 baseball card unquestionably ranks amongst the earliest known.

As someone who specializes in photographs, I often use phrases such as "circa," "1930s," "early 1950s" or "Civil War era." Sometimes the date of making is stamped or printed on the photo and you can are certain of the year, sometimes even day. But many times you don't know the specific year the photo was made, even when you are confident the photo is original. If an unmarked photo could have been made on December 31 1971, that means it also could have been made January 1 1972. Though, under most circumstances, whether the photo was developed in 1971 or 72 has no effect on the value that Steve McQueen photo. Even the buyer might not care one way or the other. If it's a 1971 image printed in 1995, then it's an issue for the buyer. But 1972 development is no big deal.

What is interesting with movie photos is that the movie stills (photos sent to press and displayed in the theatres) are sometimes dated the year before the movie came out. There are the usual delays and machinations in the release of a movie. Thus, you can have Gone With the Wind stills, dated 1938 and showing scenes from the movie, even though GWTW is a 1939 movie.