[gonefishin]

I have been a member for a month or so now. After joining, I quickly realized there are a lot of members that know a lot more than I do when it comes to pre war baseball items and cards. I appreciate everyone's knowledge and opinion. I would really appreciate any one's thoughts on this item as I've never seen one before.

I recently purchased some items from Bob Feller's estate auction. One of the items I purchased was this 1936 copy of the Sporting News that Bob kept since 1936. It is a complete copy but is very fragile. Since receiving it, I have twice started to flip through the paper but stopped because I was/am afraid it would fall apart. It's separating where it was folded as you can see from the pictures.

Here is what I would like opinions on. I noticed that this paper is different as it clearly states "SAMPLE COPY" on the cover page. I have never seen that on any Sporting News. My thoughts were that maybe this was a pre-production copy that was provided to Bob for approval, or review, as he is featured on the front page.

I've also decided that I will be getting the paper restored, at least to a level that I can look through it.

Thanks in advance!