Which auction houses will be having live auctions at this year's National? That's as good a venue as any to auction off this collection..and he's probably still got time to get them in the catalogs.

I have seen the archives at the HOF and looked through their card collections. These will almost certainly end up in a box in their temperature controlled vault along with the rest of the cabinet cards, and CDVs. The HOF displays an extremely small percentage of their cards.

The Hall of Fame does not permanently display most of their photographs because all works on paper are very sensitive to light and exposure. The permanent display of any work on paper, even with controlled light levels, will lead to fading and light damage. The best way to preserve photographs is to "rest" them in climate controlled storage that is free of light. This is what the Hall of Fame does.

I assume that the Hall of Fame will eventually digitize their collection, and anything that they keep in storage is available in their research room upon request. Hundreds or thousands of people view prints, photographs, and papers that they keep in storage each year. I have used their research room before, and it was a great experience. They have a nice collection of 19th century material that would provide very good context to these amazing photographs. The photographs really would not be buried in the basement...

The Hall would be a great place for the photographs, and I think they would be both safer and more appreciated there than at any other museum or historical society. I will seriously consider giving my collection to the Hall when it is time for me to make that decision.

For the record: I don't work at the Hall of Fame.

Kudbegud, if you donate your photographs, you can draw up a contract that restricts the museum/historical society from selling them. You will just want to make sure that you consult a lawyer about the contract. If you decide to sell, I also recommend one of the big auction houses already mentioned. You would certainly have many interested bidders, myself included!

Best,
Charles

Lots of great recommendations
 

There are lots of great recommendations from some of the foremost experts in the field, in this thread.

It is all going to come down to what the owner's (hi owner) goal is. Since he has now been made aware that these are at a minimum of $5000 in value maybe his thoughts have changed. I will echo others sentiments. Take your time.....then take a bit more time and make a decision that YOU are happiest with and makes you feel good about. As I told another board member in an email, that really is what this is all about. Whatever your choice is I wish you the very best with them. They are truly awesome photos and thanks for sharing them with our community.

I do have one question for the owner. Is one of the photos actually a relative of yours? (your grand or great grandfather etc...) You mentioned they belonged to your grandfather but I don't think I saw (might have missed it) where one of these is actually a relative? best regards




best regards

Great items!
 

Great items! As you see, you have some options. As others have said, I would take your time. Certainly many collectors would love to own these and I think they should be kept together as a group.

Awesome CDV's.

IMO go with a major auction house, it will be worth it.

Also if you wanted to preserve the history you can spend some of the proceeds and have a small web page developed about them.

I was poking around on Google today and I came up with some information on the Wapello baseball club:

1. The history of baseball in Iowa goes back to 1866 when the Davenport Union Club played the Wapellos of Rock Island.

2."The matched baseball game between the Union club of this city and the Wapello club of Rock Island came off on Saturday last at the appointed place and resulted in the victory of the Wapellos. A large number of spectators attended, the greater portion being ladies. The game commenced at 2:15 o'clock, the Wapello boys having their first inning. The following is an official report of the game. We wish the Union boys better luck next time:


Wapello, Rock Island. Union, Davenport.
W. Gleim, 3d b....................... 13 E. Glaspell, 1st b.........................1
W. Dart, c. f........................... 11 J. W. Coon, s. s......................... 1
M. Weiser, 2d b..................... 14 A. L. Mossman, 3d b................. 0
J. Hodges, 1.f......................... 14 Samuel Priest, 1. f...................... 1
C. Platt, p............................... 13 C. Krum, r. f...............................1
S. M. Eggleston, r. f.................11 C. Glaspell, c..............................1
H. Platt, s. s........................... 15 John A. Bamber, c. f...................0
M. Sturgeon, 1st b................ 15 D. Porter, 2d b.......................... 1
R. Chamberlain, c.....................13 P. McManus, p......................... 1
_____ ____
Total......................................119 Total...........................................7
Innings Runs Innings Runs
Wapello...................9............119 Union........................9...............7

"Fly balls caught by the following gentlemen of Wapello: C. Platt, 1; H. Platt, 1; M. Sturgeon, 2; R. Chamberlain, 1. Union: J. W. Coon, 2; A. L. Mossman, 3; C. Durm, 1; Claspell, 1; P. McManus, 1. Umpire, William Sayles, of Moline; scorer. W. S. Gates, of Rock Island.

Love the trophy ball cdv. Something you never see and the best of the lot in my opinion. Thanks for sharing the photos and the story.

Back from the dentist.
To all who have posted since I signed off last night, thank you all for your suggestions and comments. To have made this impact with these cards is totally unexpected and overwhelming. I will contact all the organizations mentioned as well as the auction houses. The responses I get will guide what comes next. First I want to get the hi rez scans done. A compilation of all the comments and information presented here will be put together. Then the phone calls and emails begin. The photo CD's sent out.
This response has taken me by surprise and I have to digest it all to come to the best decision. I would like to see these accessible to the most fans possible. Freely available to view or use in research. To be appreciated for their history and a snapshot of baseballs earliest days.
Leon: None of the players are relatives, as far as I know. I'll bet, as noted here earlier, the decedents of the players would like to know this part of their heritage.
Oldjudge: Those are some fantastic details you came up with. Isn't Google changing research for the better?

Those are simply an amazing collection that tell a story & must be kept together as a snapshot of some of the earliest baseball captured by camera.

It was a joy to see them. The advice given is varied & all by top-notch, knowledgable collectors---TAKE YOUR TIME & decide what is best for you to
assure that the group history is preserved before any decision is made to sell.

I woud hope that if going the museum route they will guarantee to promote & display them.

Museum theft
 

Lest we forget, while I'm sure the Hall of Fame has tightened up its security after some really adverse publicity, numerous items have been stolen from Cooperstown over the years, including a group of five opening day baseballs signed by various presidents, donated by Walter Johnson; a DiMaggio cap; and various historic documents.

The museum donation would be a good idea if only they would care for them as devotedly as you or another passionate collector would!

Just my two cents.

Best, guys!

Larry

I visited the HOF three years ago for research and was impressed by the care they gave the 19th century photographs I was viewing. Items in the HOF can be personally viewed by visitors. As a security measure, security cameras record the individual viewing the items. The archivists wore white gloves while handling the items and require visitors to do the same. Even with gloves, I was informed that some items were too fragile to handle except by the archivist. Many of the rare photographs I viewed were already scanned and stored in a database, which made it easy to order copies. Donating the CDVs to the HOF and keeping the set together is worth considering. Just my 2 cents...

If you donate to the Hall of Fame and they do happen to get stolen don't expect the Hall of Fame to do anything about it, even if they know who stole them.

You mean no police report? No legal action of any kind? No firings? No effort to recover the stolen items?

Great post Dan!

+1

1866 Newspaper Clippings
http://i1236.photobucket.com/albums/...DailyArgus.jpg

It looks like the Wapellos were the class of their area. I like the quote about the " Suckers teaching them fellows about baseball. " Neat stuff.

The writing style and word usage was very different back then. As well as the scores! Do you think a run then is the same as a run now? Beat those pesky Davenport Scott boys 41 to 17. How about 5 1/2 o'clock?

Run was the same but with no gloves and no overhand pitching scoring runs was a lot easier.

Ah, no overhand pitches. Did you notice they report players catches? And the award for throwing?

These CdVs have landed in Legendary's National live auction.
Good luck Kudbegud!

That's a pretty amazing auction-great stuff throughout!

and
 

and not a darned thing I need for my collection...thank goodness...I can continue to drink beer that evening and not worry about the auction!!.....

Save a few for me. I'll be back after the auction

Some follow-up;

The cards, team and auction were written up in the Quad-Cities newspaper today. He got the name of this forum wrong, which is embarrassing, because of the excellent assistance and education I received here.

Wapellos Article

Doug,
Congratulations on the over the top price for your Wapello CdVs. The final price exceeded any expectations I had. I was at the auction and I will tell you that I did my part to help your cause. Unfortunately I was not the high bidder.

Were they sold as a lot, and what did they go for?

$21,510
 

They were sold as a lot and went for $21,510 with buyers premium.

Gary:
Thanks for bidding. It exceeded my expectations too...by a lot. You were there! That must be a special happening being at the National Convention. It was exciting to listen over the phone as my lot came up...short and surprising as the bids rose up and up. Was the winner from the phone or physically there? Any body from the forum?

M's_Fan & HBroll:
Yes, they went as a 13 card lot and for $18,000 before buyers fee. I can't see these being broken up to singles. Part of the uniqueness is having the full team, don't you think?

I was the underbidder on the CdVs and they went to a phone bidder. I got a little crazy in my bidding and still came up short. I greatly underestimated the premium others put on the completeness of your CdVs. I would have really liked to have won them.

Sorry you didn't win Gary. I was hoping a forum member would win because I know they are already passionate and dedicated enthusiasts.