NOW LIVE: Negro League Baseball Collectibles Guide

[cyseymour]

Originally Posted by bcbgcbrcb

I would first like to thank everyone who has purchased a copy of my guide. I hope that it proves to be the most useful reference tool of it's kind in the hobby.

I will now respond to comments made by a fellow Nert 54 board member, Ryan Christoff, whom everyone in the hobby knows to be, if not the foremost expert in the field of Negro League Baseball collectibles, certainly among the top two or three.

Less than two weeks ago, I had the opportunity to spend a good part of one day at Ryan's dealer table at the National in Chicago. Together, we did a quick review of my guide which had just been published two days earlier. While Ryan pointed out a number of things that would require updates to be made, I eagerly took notes of everything that Ryan mentioned.

First and foremost, there was a 1924 Cuban League postcard picturing Oscar Charleston which, upon further research, had been determined to be fake. Along those same lines, there was a group of 1948-49 Toleteros "Test" cards which were auctioned off a number of years ago and have also subsequently been determined to be fakes.

Beyond those two admittedly significant errors, Ryan pointed out a couple of Cuban team composites that I labeled as such which were part of Cuban League publications but that was not specified in my descriptions.

Also, Ryan pointed out a number of items in the card section which he indicated do not exist and should be removed. All of these items have been named in albums, as part of uncut sheets, etc. but no known examples have surfaced thus far in the hobby. In my opinion, these items are not mistakes but could simply have the added disclaimer "Unconfirmed" placed next to them.

Other than that, there was a misspelling of a Hispanic players' last name as well as differences of opinion on some values which is a completely subjective area. Thus, these would not qualify as errors.

We also discussed the idea of Ryan doing a much more comprehensive review of the guide once he returned back home so I agreed to forward a complimentary copy to him immediately. Due to the timing of late summer activities, we both agreed that it would be best to revisit things after the Labor Day holiday weekend.

In the interim, I started to go back to my electronic version of the guide and begin making some of the updates that Ryan had suggested while also giving some thought on how best to go about handling the fact that 100 copies have already been published. My thought was to get back together with Ryan after the summer and determine the full scope of not only his recommended changes but also numerous additional items that he would make available for future print runs.

Unfortunately, Ryan felt the need to give his input in this thread before we had a chance to discuss further. As everyone can imagine, I am quite hurt by Ryan's comments which call into question not only the credability of my guide but also my knowledge of Negro League Baseball collectibles in general.

In closing, although my guide might not be perfect, at least it is a good head start towards educating many in the hobby who are interested in Negro League Baseball collectibles but never had the opportunity to learn about them due to the lack of a comprehensive resource available on the market.

I haven't received my copy of the book yet, so I can't comment on its quality. But you wrote that you knew of these fakes from Ryan "less than two weeks ago" yet presumably you were selling the book after you already knew of the fakes. You go on to call the book "a good head start"... but I didn't really want a head start, I thought I was receiving a definitive resource.

I am not objecting to the fact that fakes were discovered - it happens. But I'm surprised that after they were discovered, you still went ahead with the decision to sell the book. I would honestly rather have a refund and purchase a corrected copy than buy a copy with known fakes that is soon to be revised. Can you offer a refund/return/exchange once my book arrives so that I can get a revised one instead?

Thanks,

Jamie