large collection of photos found

[Archive]

Posted By: Rob

Hi all,
A friend of mine works with someone that somehow came across a photographers large collection of sports photos from the early 1950s, including the negatives. My friend plans on selling this stuff for his coworker and get a piece of it. Supposedly hundreds and hundreds of negatives and even more prints all in binders, including Jackie Robinson and yogi musial and boxers too like marciano. I haven't been able to get any more information yet, but my friend said it came with a packet of paper and mentioned "Long Island Long Ago exhibition", "camberwell collection", and names "raymond chambers and joan chambers".

Just wondering if anyone has any idea about what this could have to do with. What would prices for individual prints and negatives (in general) - a buck or two or more? I had stopped by his desk and he quickly showed me a couple of items and I haven't been able to chat much with him since. Everything looked authentic and the photos looked professional - not like he was just a fan in the crowd, he must've been able to get on the field - maybe a media guy?

Would my friend do better selling this stuff individually or as a whole consigning to an auction house?

I'll post in the memorabilia section too in case there are people over there who don't come to this side of the world.

Thanks,
Rob

[Archive]

Posted By: Jason L

I would think that going the more laborious route of selling individually would yield more money, and should be tried first. Because you'll often get some wacko (like me) who is intensely interested in the odd photo of someone you've never heard of before (my cousins Lee and Gene Handley), and you'll wind up selling what you thought was a cast-off for $30-50...

Then sell the remaining ones as a lot.

[Archive]

Posted By: Rob

Jason, you think $30-50 per original photo? What about the negatives?

Thanks again,
Rob

[Archive]

Posted By: Rich Klein

Is harder than you think. With very few exceptions; you don't get as much as you think you should for the images. And places like Getty Images when they purchase a collection; will not give you any where near what you think they should be worth. And then; with so few players left to sign who played in the 40's and 50's and even the 60's -- again the money making on these players will be less than you think for there will be less public appearences for them to sign at to make money on selling large groups (100 or so) of the 8 by 10's of the negatives you have. I'm not saying that you don't have some value there -- but it is frankly not as much as you may think. If the value were much larger; you'd see more lots in the major auction houses catalogs.
Lelands bought out an SF paper and has done pretty well with those; but even then you saw Josh Evans post last week about the show he is setting up at and the rate of selling photos at $3 per retail in a show situation.

Regards
Rich Klein

[Archive]

Posted By: Rob

Hi Rich, thanks for the post.

I understand that modern reproductons of images from the negatives go cheap, but what about the originals that were produced in 1952 as opposed to them being produced today?

Thanks,
Rob

[Archive]

Posted By: Rich Klein

Even the original negatives from the 50's are not worth as much as you would think. My best guess is, if you call a place like Getty Archives up to get a quote; you won't get anywhere near what you think they are worth. There is a good chance that a private collector may want one of the pieces; like it was mentioned about the Handley brothers; but finding those collectors is like a needle in the haystack.

http://search-completed.ebay.com/search/search.dll?sofocus=so&sbrftog=1&dfsp=3&catref=C6&from=R10&_trksid=m37&satitle=baseball+original+photo*&sacat=-1%26catref%3DC6&sargn=-1%26saslc%3D2&sadis=200&fpos=ZIP%2FPostal&sabfmts=1&fis=2&ftrt=1&ftrv=1&saprclo=&saprchi=&fsop=3%26fsoo%3D2

http://search-completed.ebay.com/search/search.dll?sofocus=bs&sbrftog=1&dfsp=3&catref=C6&from=R10&_trksid=m37&satitle=baseball+negative*&sacat=-1%26catref%3DC6&sargn=-1%26saslc%3D2&sadis=200&fpos=ZIP%2FPostal&sabfmts=1&fis=2&ftrt=1&ftrv=1&saprclo=&saprchi=&fsop=3%26fsoo%3D2

Just for fun; I did a completed search on the Bay for photos; some are good; are not; but you see that it's not easy -- except for the 46 DiMaggio photo; I don't think any photos went for anywhere near their "retail value"

Interesting conversation piece here -- let me know what you think

Regards
Rich

[Archive]

Posted By: annonymous

The main player in the field of negatives and photos is John Rogers out of Little Rock, Arkansas. There was a recent story on him and his archive. I believe he has over 2 million images and readily buys negatives. He recently purchased the Barney Stein estate(former Dodgers team photographer). He is a high net worth guy who can afford to pay on large collections and seems to pay fair. I was lucky to view is Conlon collection and it is large....over 1200 original conlons, all from the original Christies auction back in 1996.