Posted By:
Ryan ChristoffThe closing price on this album was outrageous. This is NOT the Pittsburgh Crawfords of the Negro Leagues. There is no one important in any of the photos. It is probably from the 1920s, not the 30s as stated, and is likely a local semi-pro team. If this is the case, I suppose you could say this is the team that eventually became the Pittsburgh Crawfords. It's possible a couple of those guys played for the professional Crawfords later on, but no one major.
It is also possible this is just a local team from Crawford, Texas or some other city named Crawford.
The lady who sold it deals in photos and knows nothing about baseball or the Negro Leagues. She did some rudimentary research over the internet and determined that it was the Pittsburgh Crawfords of the Negro Leagues. I don't believe there was any deception involved on her part, although I did make her aware that it was not the same Crawfords she mentioned in her description.
Having said that, I thought the images depicted on the photos were outstanding and I had a snipe in just based on that. Of course, it closed for four times what my snipe was set at.
Had it been the actual Crawfords I would have gladly bid over $5,000 on it. Probably a lot more. And I doubt I would have won it.
Very nice images, though. Definitely the most interesting item on ebay in the past few weeks, if you ask me.
-Ryan