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Merkle923 · 07-02-2016, 04:04 PM

Regarding Charley Smith, or any given player whose negatives Topps has or hasn't sold on eBay, this reminder: the files I got to do my research in contained at least 1,000,000 images, and the fact that Topps has sold countless images I looked for but could not find, suggests there was a second storage area which I did not see and that the actual number is likely closer to 2,000,000.

Topps started auctioning the images in 2007 (I believe). Let's say the average number of baseball images sold per week has been 100 (a generous guess). That means that nine and a half years into the process they are only now approaching their 50,000th negative sold.

That would be 2.5 percent of all the images they have. 1,950,000 to go. A supply sufficient to keep up this pace into the year 2,491. All of which means the odds against a particular image being sold are about 97.5%. It's speculative to try to suss out the odds against or for any one of the 20,000-25,000 different players and non-players they shot to appear - especially given that there's no motivation for Topps to distribute players in any kind of order. As we've seen, they tend to grab a bunch of files in an alphabetical cluster, take ALL they have of a given player, scan four of them one day, scan one or two card-used ones a few days later, and then maddeningly return to his file again and again until we are up to our necks in Taylor Duncan.

I can tell you that there is/was a Topps file of Smith. It contained a negative created from re-photographing a colorized team issued shot of Smith with the Dodgers at the L.A. Coliseum, at least one session shot by a Topps photographer at the Dodger camp at Vero Beach, at least one of Smith with the Phillies at Connie Mack Stadium, several shoots of him with the White Sox, several Mets shoots, a spring training and a regular season shoot of him with the 1966 Cardinals, a bunch of Yankee shoots, a session from spring training in Phoenix with the 1969 Giants (for whom he never played), and at least one shoot with the '69 Cubs at Shea Stadium.

While we're here a note about "folder JJ" or whatever it is. The web hosting site Topps now uses only became known semi-publicly in about 2011. That means there is about four years' worth of Topps images out there - the earliest ones in low-definition and with no watermarks - which were all posted on eBay via some means or site we don't know and cannot access. That they may have been preserved and now easily catalogued is great but these images should not be confused with "new" uploads.

07-02-2016, 04:04 PM	#28418
Merkle923 Hall Of Famer Join Date: Aug 2013 Posts: 2,210	Charley Smith and 1,950,000 other images Regarding Charley Smith, or any given player whose negatives Topps has or hasn't sold on eBay, this reminder: the files I got to do my research in contained at least 1,000,000 images, and the fact that Topps has sold countless images I looked for but could not find, suggests there was a second storage area which I did not see and that the actual number is likely closer to 2,000,000. Topps started auctioning the images in 2007 (I believe). Let's say the average number of baseball images sold per week has been 100 (a generous guess). That means that nine and a half years into the process they are only now approaching their 50,000th negative sold. That would be 2.5 percent of all the images they have. 1,950,000 to go. A supply sufficient to keep up this pace into the year 2,491. All of which means the odds against a particular image being sold are about 97.5%. It's speculative to try to suss out the odds against or for any one of the 20,000-25,000 different players and non-players they shot to appear - especially given that there's no motivation for Topps to distribute players in any kind of order. As we've seen, they tend to grab a bunch of files in an alphabetical cluster, take ALL they have of a given player, scan four of them one day, scan one or two card-used ones a few days later, and then maddeningly return to his file again and again until we are up to our necks in Taylor Duncan. I can tell you that there is/was a Topps file of Smith. It contained a negative created from re-photographing a colorized team issued shot of Smith with the Dodgers at the L.A. Coliseum, at least one session shot by a Topps photographer at the Dodger camp at Vero Beach, at least one of Smith with the Phillies at Connie Mack Stadium, several shoots of him with the White Sox, several Mets shoots, a spring training and a regular season shoot of him with the 1966 Cardinals, a bunch of Yankee shoots, a session from spring training in Phoenix with the 1969 Giants (for whom he never played), and at least one shoot with the '69 Cubs at Shea Stadium. While we're here a note about "folder JJ" or whatever it is. The web hosting site Topps now uses only became known semi-publicly in about 2011. That means there is about four years' worth of Topps images out there - the earliest ones in low-definition and with no watermarks - which were all posted on eBay via some means or site we don't know and cannot access. That they may have been preserved and now easily catalogued is great but these images should not be confused with "new" uploads.