Provenance of a Vintage Card - Share another Story

[T3s]

Hi Frank,

Thanks very much for your post. Really a pleasure to read and certainly interesting. Your efforts were worth it, right?

As another example, several months ago I was lucky enough to have a beautiful T3 Turkey Red find (search older posts). A few of the cards have writing on the back. A handful note "Reid Pleasant Drug" across the top. My assumption is that was a local drug store - several ways the cards could be attached to the store.

Best of all, one of the cards carries the signature of "Elias Beasley". Mr. Beasley was the original collector as a very young man. I purchased the cards from Mr. Beasley's grandson. During our negotiations for the cards, we talked a fair amount about the family and the story about how the cards were kept, owned, etc. I was very interested and wanted to find a way to preserve the collection (before some headed out to all corners of the earth) and document the provenance.

I went online to Walmart.com (not a plug) and created a beautiful photo book. Full color, full-sized scans of every card with brief commentary on each page, additional pictures and information on the set itself and it's provenance. Bound in black leather, about 50 pages, back and front on glossy paper. My point being that it is very classy looking and just as important, it was cheap! Provenance and original collection preserved.

I gave the seller two copies, one for each of his sons, and kept one for myself.

If anyone comes across a find of any size, I think it would be cool (and important) to document it as well as possible. Years from now, there will be collectors even more fanatic than we are who be thrilled to find this information.

Happy Collecting,
Craig Diamond