[ctownboy]

Exhibitman,

Wasn't Burdick's cards once privately held? Weren't they in HIS home and enjoyed mostly only by HIM? What would have happened if he would have decided to throw his cards away or decided to cut them into small pieces and give them away or sell them? They would NOT have ever been donated to the museum for ALL to look at, study and enjoy.

The Ty Cobb bat could have been disposed of in a similiar manner; a wealthy guy buys it for his PERSONAL collection and displays it IN HIS HOME. Then, when he is older and finds out his children have NO INTEREST in baseball and that there ARE museums who would be HAPPY to have a bat like that to display, he COULD have donated it for the public trust.

But now, the bat is cut up into small pieces it can NEVER be put back together and displayed as a complete bat and thus EVERYONE who is interested in seeing such a thing and who can not afford it will NEVER get the chance to.

The SAME goes for YOUR collection. I don't know who you are, where you live or what is in your collection. I may never know any of it. Thus, I would have no clue what I missed out on if you decided to cut your collecton up into small pieces and sell it. However, as long as your collection is NOT cut up into small pieces there IS a chance that you would sell a piece or pieces of your collection and OTHERs could then have a chance to own and enjoy THAT piece. Also, there is a chance that YOUR COLLECTION is one day donated to a museum.

But THAT will NEVER happen if it is cut up into small pieces and dispersed.

David