I know a number of collectors with astounding collections who will not post on a public board for safety and privacy reasons.
One great--and free--way to see exhaustive collections of great cards is to make friends with and not antagonize the collectors who own them. Then they will show you their cards as part of the iterated social interaction known as "friendship." If people think you are an insufferable blowhard they won't be your "friend" and won't open their collections to you.
The auction houses do indeed maintain archives of past sales. Heritage has a very nice function in its database that costs you nothing besides signing up for the auctions. VCP is a de facto database as well.
It is a shame that the Burdick Collection has not been digitized and made available--I'd pay for a CD of that--the only way to get to see it now is to be involved in a research project and get an appointment.
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