OT: Contacting original collector

[Leon]

Originally Posted by Snapolit1

I'd call. Even if you get a family member and he is deceased, when you explain the circumstances I'd think they'd likely get a real kick out of it. If collecting brought grandpa joy you might be on the phone for an hour hearing stories. I'd do it. If someone did something like involving my father I'd love it.

A bit of a late response but I agree with this.
.

[drcy]

"Yeah, I was the consigner. Boy you overpaid, douche. Amazed you'd admit to it."

[Directly]

In my opinion kind of depends what you paid for his card,--if it comes up and they ask what you paid for his card, they might not want to know, unless they were the consigners--I would give it some thought before I called.

[Jewish-collector]

The hell with the call. Knock on their door and ask them how the hell they're doing (j/k). Seriously, maybe write a letter to them first. Best of luck !!!

[Jobu]

I posted about this back in 2019, but I did this with a photo and returned it to a very appreciate family. Obv you are not planning to send the card back, but it might be a fun reunion.

Here is my story:

I picked up a few photos from Dennis (photomoto) and he tossed the following snapshot into the deal for free.

I saw the writing on the back and decided to go hunting. Lancelotti, Curacao, and the army were where I found some traction, as I found some info in an army database and that led me to this online memorial:

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/...iel-lancelotti

A bit of time going through Facebook, Google, and online White Pages in the area led me to the Facebook profiles of who I believed to be Daniel's son and grandson. The former never replied, but after a few messages the latter did. It turns out that he showed the photo to his grandmother, Daniel's wife, and she was thrilled to see this never-before-seen photo of her late husband. I immediately dropped the photo in the mail - it is now back where it belongs.

And I got a very nice hand-written note from her about how much it meant. I assume the photo belonged to one of the other guys in it and she never knew it existed.

[Snapolit1]

Nice nice story. If that was someone I was close to, an unknown picture from decades ago would knock me off my seat.