Some of the mysteries and myths surrounding the most famous card in the hobby.

[Peter_Spaeth]

Originally Posted by G1911

I would not call The Card terribly reliable - O’Keeffe seems to believe whatever his interview subjects said and done little genuine inquiry. I do believe he accurately reported what people said to him, but it is hardly a good book objectively.

I do think this hearsay, from people at least connected to the origin as I recall it, does obviously beat a single memory of an unknown person saying something else at a show once to someone. That’s a lower level of hearsay.

The whole point of asking for evidence is that I cannot find much actual material to go on, just a lot of myths, conflicting stories, and accounts with little to back them. I don’t have any opinion on where it originated. This is why I was asking for the “research”. There is a lot that could be learned from a partial T206 sheet, if one ever existed (yes, I am aware sheets existed when they were printed in 1909-1911, before someone steps in to correct me with the blindingly obvious).

Maybe Ted can fill in the gaps, his story has the advantage over the others of being contemporaneous with the event. But at this point I don't think we have much of a clue. It is interesting how at least two stories, although likely feeding off the same source, say Ray refused to say where he got the card. That makes no sense if Ray had already told Sevchuk the card had come from Ray's father.