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Posted By: Mark Fimoff

Its good to have the consignor provide evidence to support his claim, but the authenticator has to know how independently find his own evidence. This is includes at least a good library of selected books, as well as knowing what is available on the internet and there is quite a lot but of course some of these have errors, including a small percentage of the Library of Congress photos. Good knowledge of the baseball history of the relevent time period is required. Also, having a personal network of baseball historians that you can access is a big plus.

For 2 dollars plus postage on amazon.com I quickly found Janet Bruces book on the KC Monarchs which was very helpful in researching this photo.

For a high dollar photo knowing how to access online genealogical services to try to find family members can be useful. HoF can also be helpful but they dont work for free.

Of course for a $300 - $500 photo it may not be worth the effort, but for a potential $3000-$5000 photo, I would think that it is.