Thanks to our members and collectors for helping each other

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Posted By: Joann

Rather than further hijack the Plank thread, I'll add a few more thoughts here.

We often use and see the phrase "freely share" here in terms of posters sharing knowledge, but I think we can sometimes underappreciate just what that means. Some of these guys could really cash in if they kept some knowledge to themselves.

Ted Z, as an example, could sit tight on his knowledge of unusual back combinations and quietly buy up the scarcer versions. You may not think that is really "cashing in" now, but a few decades ago people weren't paying attention to backs at all. Now the Drums and Uzits and other rarities get big money. Who knows if 10 years from now there will be more focus on the series designations or even factories?

Another example is Dan Bretta with his recent discovery of JT Wilkinson (HOF'er) standing inconspicuously in the back row of the Hopkins Bros womens baseball postcard. I bought mine for $22 and based on what's sold on ebay since Dan published his discovery here, I could probably sell it for $400+ even in rough condition. The last 3 on ebay have gone for at least that much. Think Dan could have made any money by quietly picking them up off ebay for the next year or two? He probably could have gotten maybe 6-9 of them for under $200 total, published his find and sold them for $500 per. He gave up a lot of money by coming on here and cluing everyone in.

Ryan Christoff also comes to mind as someone that could probably sit on information for a few years while buying unknown rarities and cashing in later, but generally chooses to spread knowledge as soon as he acquires it.

So thank you to all of you that freely share hard-learned information. Just another example of the helpfulness of people here.

Joann