Quote:
Originally Posted by perezfan
If you prefer memorabilia over cards, it was one of the greatest auctions ever held... perhaps the greatest. Such a shame that in retrospect, a few bogus/forged high-profile items (less than one quarter of 1% of the offered lots) tainted the entire auction for many people.
Aside from Ty Cobb's fake dentures and Joe Jackson's fabricated jersey, the vast majority of Halper's offerings were spectacular with many being one-of-a-kind. It is widely believed that Halper was not even aware of the few "bad items". According to those who knew him, he was guilty of wishful thinking which led to his gullibility. He was just too trusting of those looking to take advantage of his wealth and willingness to spend.
That said, there is no better read than those Catalogs if you have around 6 hours to kill. I read through them on a coast-to-coast flight while my wife made it through 3 full-length movies. She told me she was drooling over Brad Pitt while I drooled at nerd porn.
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At some point, in the ‘80s I think it was, there was an article in Smithsonian magazine about his collection. That article and accompanying photos, mainly of so many items displayed in his basement IIRC, really stoked my enthusiasm for non-card baseball memorabilia.