[Exhibitman]

As far as value goes...My experience has been that most cards I've discovered and publicized via my site/book have gone up in value as people learned about them. Some additional examples then have come out of the woodworks and the prices have taken a bit of a parabolic arc before stabilizing. Case in point is the pre-1870 CDV of John C. Heenan from the Fredricks Specialite series. My research points to it being the first commercially produced and sold boxing card. Before I researched it and published the card was a $200 item on a normal day, like any other CDV of any 19th century fighter whose name isn't Sullivan Corbett, Fitzsimmons or Dempsey. After I published, it went up tenfold and then stabilized around $1,000, when it can be found. If I'd sat on the info I'd have been able to pick off the handful that have come up over the last 5 years; I chose to spill the beans, which is an example of why I'm never gonna be rich. I definitely understand both schools of thought; I just prefer that the knowledge be out there. As Emil Faber said, "Knowledge is good."