Phil,
I'm sorry if you were hurt by my comments. That was not my intent. I like you and am still willing to help if you'd like me to. My input wasn't personal, but I can see why it would be hard not to take it that way. You've put a lot of hard work into this project and it probably felt like I was saying it has no value. That's not what I'm saying at all. I think the idea of a guide like this is great. It's something that there is a clear desire for by many collectors. What I don't understand is why there was such a rush to publish it.
I don't claim to be the world's authority about any of this, but I don't think it's too outlandish for me to suggest that you probably should have sent me a proof copy or something to look over BEFORE publishing it. So many of these errors are easily fixed. I'm not talking about your price estimates, either, when I mention the errors. My #1 main issue, and the reason I posted in this thread, is the fact that you included fakes. Saying the 1951-52 Denia set is from 1950-51 is relatively minor. An easily fixable mistake. Listing a 1946-47 Almanaque Deportivo card of Ray Dandridge when it was never even produced is not a big deal. Including a white guy named George Brown who has no affiliation with the Negro Leagues whatsoever is bizarre and probably preventable by looking at his picture on the card, but still, not a big deal. No one is really harmed by these. There are many others like those, but they are somewhat harmless, although even one of them would drive me crazy if it was something I published myself. No, the inclusion of fakes is what I find potentially harmful to the hobby. I've always taken a pretty harsh stance about this, so it's not just now with you. And I want to clarify that I am in no way implying you had anything to do with fake cards. I know that you were only trying to be comprehensive and genuinely believed they were real. And also somehow honestly thought George Brown was a Negro Leaguer.
Legitimizing fake cards is a step in the wrong direction. If someone who bought your book pays $3,000 today for a fake Willard Brown card because they thought it was real after seeing it in your book, in my opinion YOU have some responsibility in that. Perhaps not legal responsibility, but you understand my point. If you're publishing a guide, people are probably going to assume you know more about the subject than they do and it's possible they will take your published work as truth, even when you have "guide" right in the title. Again, we're not talking about new information coming out after you published. That can and will happen and there is nothing you can do about that, other than update it for the next version of the guide you publish.
Everything I'm talking about was easily preventable. Even after you printed the first batch of books. I told you how important I felt it was to at least include some kind of note or something about the fakes if you were still going to send out copies of the book, but it doesn't seem like you did that. I wasn't trying to take a dig at you by posting on the board. I was trying to prevent fake cards from being considered real. With all the other errors, I was hoping you might consider not publishing this first batch of books, as I mentioned to you on the phone, and then putting out a much more comprehensive, much more accurate guide at some point in the future
Again, I'm still willing to help out in whatever way you need me to. I've been saving scans of Negro League items for over 15 years. I have a pretty large archive of images. In your memorabilia section, I have either owned at some point or currently own about half of those items. That means I have high resolution scans of them. I have images of MANY other items and lots of card issues you've probably never heard of. I'm happy to share any of those with you. I don't think you realize that a good portion of this stuff gets traded privately. Combing auction house catalogs only gives part of the picture. I know you feel like I was attacking you personally, Phil, but I wasn't. I was attacking your book. Maybe your book should surrender, hit the gym, and come back stronger than ever!
-Ryan
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