Quote:
Originally Posted by effe
So I won an autographed ball a while back and the auction house also included a small photo album containing photos of people taken with the athlete and the event, presumably picturing the group attending the signing event. I'm saving a photo of the athlete signing my ball, but I still feel weird about just chucking the rest of the booklet. These were somebody's memories. I know there is no way to get these back to the family (or at least would be difficult) and presumably they didn't want them anyway as they included it with the consignment. I kind of wish they hadn't even included it.
Can anyone else relate to this or am I just odd?
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I have had a similar scenario. In 2006, I purchased the collection of a very well known European soccer figure who had died years previously. The auction description was relatively vague but, in addition to the soccer items which was obviously my interest here, came hundreds of personal photos of the man, including those with his family and those of family members, friends etc. These dated from the 1920s through to the 1950s. It also included other weird and wondering personal items - for example, certificates in his name that travel companies used to give to passengers who crossed the equator.
Almost two decades later and I still have these personal items. A number of years ago, Imdid reach out to contacts in an effort to get these items to his heirs. However, although I assumed he had had a family, that wasn’t the case and he had no close relations living - in fact, his closest relatives were nephews / nieces who are living in Brazil.
Ironically, I have more physical photographs of this man and his family / friends than I do of my own family. In some strange way, I feel some level of responsibility for preserving them. They’ve been retained through various house moves etc. Maybe when I get more time in some years as I edge closer to retirement, I’ll revisit what I can do with them.