What would you do if you stumbled across a never before discovered baseball "Find"

[Runscott]

Originally Posted by slidekellyslide

The museum you donate it to, might not put it on display, or only display it once...it will rot in eternity in the basement of the museum, or they'll sell it someday. I once purchased a bunch of old Nebraska football programs at the yearly local library sale...they were all stamped with the Nebraska State Historical society stamp on the inside cover.

+1 Some people here in the PacNW donated a pile of valuable, historically-significant (in their minds) items that had been passed down from their parents (stuff from China or Japan - I forget which), to the museum in Tacoma. The museum recently began selling it all off, and the family was kind of appalled. I don't blame them, but from the museum's point of view, they can sell whatever they want.

The above example might explain why it's better to put something on 'loan' to the museum. That way you can take it back if it's not displayed, and they can never sell it.

Thanks for getting me to thinking about this - I had been thinking about leaving something in my will to the Negro Baseball Hall of Fame, but given how few 'real' items they have displayed, and their constant financial issues, I don't know how good of an idea that would be. One of you guys would probably end up with it at some point

[Runscott]

But in all fairness, sometimes it makes sense for a museum (or university) to sell items. The University of Oregon had a set of Edward Curtis' 'North American Indian' for decades, but then when they had the opportunity to acquire Curtis' personally-owned set (I believe it was donated with the stipulation that it would not be relinquished) they sold their original set. I'm sure it brought a ton of money to the University, and why would they need two sets of the same thing?