Champions Album - Old Judge & Gypsy Queen Cigarettes

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Posted By: mr. moses

as I wrote the seller and asked for more pix - the condition of the rear cover - and to ask them NOT to end the auction early as I had interest but wanted to see more about the condition. I have sold a few of these as pieces and one complete. I bought one for myself from my friend in excellent to mint for 4500.00 which was a bit stiff but fair for the condition I think. I keep it as a testimony to the lithographer's artistry and all the other reasons one comes up with to own something they could look at for free. Would be among the last of my stuff to go and I am quite happy with it. For whatever reason albums generally do not get the respect they deserve and they are quite beautiful to look at. Unfortunately you can't really look at them for fear of damaging them. Oh the joys of hobbying. I buy other albums and frame the pages - too difficult to do properly with this album. My framed albums do look awesome. Anyway I got 3 gianormous scans (back cover and 2 inside pages NOT the baseball) from the seller that unfortunately showed a something that I've had a hard time coping with in the past with this particular album. It seems that glossy and or greasy inks from the original printing have infused their way into excess paper fibers picked up from the facing pages I think - causing them to appear fuzzy and obscuring some viewing of the underlying images. I find this kind of thing to be a distraction. I have tried a couple of different conservators and my own ministrations as well to no avail.. I would never want to alter something unless I was keeping it - it needed to be done - it could be undone. There. I've said it. Still couldn't find anyone to remedy the condition. My latest thought is that some sort of application might be able to soak into the fibers and make them opaque. I tried water and it worked but only for a second or two As for the prices I usually am successful buying them in vg (damage mostly confined to exteriors as they are the classically involved interactive points) in order to sell the individual pages - at around 600.00 to 900.00. As to your buy Jon - The rear cover on the scan I got that was cropped looked quite nice and other than the bend so did the front cover. The inside pages did exhibit some fade to the peripheral images in the 2 scans I had and some of this excess paper condition on many of the images or in the general area. I think the book just wasn't stored well and the moisture and heat wherever it was kept caused the damage. Please LMK how it turns out!