It is not imaginary if others see it too.

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Posted By: identify7

When I look at Dave Levin’s cards for sale, I come away with the exact opinion which was stated by Jay. Other than relatively few pink cards, there is little variance among the colors of Old Judges.

And certainly as has been pointed out by Julie, you can not always trust the portrayals shown on eBay as being accurate regarding the color of the card offered. Further, when sellers are contacted in this regard, although they sincerely try to help you regarding the card’s appearance; differences in perception complimented by not viewing the card in a field of other similarly colored cards, impedes the seller from being able to accurately convey subtle differences in coloration.

Now, the Batter Up and the w517 sets of cards boast of colors which certainly can be called blue, green, red, etc. The Old Judge set does not contain (other than pink) such clearly defined colors.

Most of my (few) OJs are the characteristic light tan/grey background and foreground, with highlights and detail near black. One small grouping of five cards however, appears to me different. And this is where I am not sure how much of this difference is my own imagination. I will explain this below, then send the men in those clean white coats to take me away.

First off, the players depicted have dark uniforms, this increases the brown color perception on all cards, I think. One of the cards has a primarily dark background and tremendous contrast. This one looks distinctly brown. Two of the cards have less contrast than the other three.

I freely admit that I am out of my element here, because I don’t know anything about composition, photography, colors, etc. But what I see with these less distinct cards is that the decrease in contrast is not attributable to a lessening in the image sharpness, although that may be a factor, but the visual impact is a deepening in the background and foreground coloration. So the overall card appears to be tinted. One of these has an overall deeper tan appearance; the other is closer to orange. Now it is clear when you put something colored orange next to this “orange” card, the card looks brown. But when you take it away, but leave the other cards, its appearance is way more orange.

The other two cards are very similar to each other. I think that the dark uniforms make them look more black and white, or I guess brown and light tan, than OJs with lighter uniforms seem.

When I then go back and look at David Levine’s site, I can see differences among his cards; and I wonder – would anyone care about these very minor differences? Does anyone care which color Batter Up card they have?

I look at the cards that I have and the cards that I want, and one of the common threads is that they are substantially duotone cards. I was looking at a r346 blue tint Johnny Mize tonight and wondering why it was priced above the Bowman’s and Topps of the same years. I am still wondering – it is a strip card. Doesn’t everyone hate them? Ok, you can send them now. I will go quietly.

But is there a tradeoff between contrast and hue in OJs?