Originally Posted by Mark17
Since preserving history is your higher stated goal, why not focus on writing a book about the town? You're already doing a ton of research, talking to elderly people who have priceless historical insight to the town. There are many, many more facets to Clemons than just the 3 baseball personalities you mention. There's their history, yes, but that could be expanded greatly in your book. Pictures of the houses where these men grew up, biographies of them, and other members of the town's baseball team (including rosters of the team through the years, maybe some accounts of games, and so on.)
What would preserve history better - giving that community a well-researched, multi-faceted history gleaned from the recollections of elderly residents, photos of the town, its building and residents through the decades, or a few baseball cards, which, to the average person, are simply small pictures?
You mention an article you're looking for. When you find stuff like that, include it in your book for long-term preservation, for all to see and read. You could also search articles in other newspapers that have accounts of games played when the Clemons team visited their town.
Before I retired, I was a business analyst, and the first and most important thing was to examine and clarify requirements before thinking about implementation solutions. It seems to me your requirement - your passion - is to preserve the history of Clemons. You clearly understand that time is of the essence, because people with invaluable recollections and insights are steadily disappearing. However, you have, in my opinion, made the common mistake of leaping to an implementation solution (collecting a small handful of obscure baseball cards.) If you go back to the core requirement, you may find that general research might be far more valuable than, for example, replacing a card that has a crease and missing paper on the back, with a nicer copy.
If you're familiar with Larry Ritter's book, The Glory of Their Times, you know about his method, which was to interview elderly players while recording the conversations (with their permissions of course.) You could do that, with veteran farmers, policemen, firemen, grocery store owners, mayors, etc.
I've collected cards for basically my entire life and I can tell you honestly, if someone had a T206 Wagner on display 30 minutes from me, I wouldn't bother to see it. Why? For me, seeing a picture of it would suffice. Put photos of the cards you seek in your book and that will satisfy the great majority of people interested in the subject of the town of Clemons.
You could have a ton of fun with such a project instead of being frustrated with your elusive pursuit of scarce pieces of cardboard. You could accomplish far, far more in terms of historical preservation across all areas of life, with a nice focus on the town baseball team, if that's your main passion. Instead of searching in vain for someone who will sell you that 1953 minor league card, seek out an advanced collector who might provide you with a high resolution scan of it.
Your book, self-published probably, would be available to all, and forever into the future. Unlike a handful of cards, which will end up somewhere, at best in some obscure display with little context.
You obviously are a very skilled writer. You have a deep passion. Preserving history really matters to you. My humble suggestion is, re-examine your core requirement, re-define you implementation strategy, and proceed to document the full history of the town of Clemons.
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