Buck Barker

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Posted By: Mark Macrae

Bruce.... You are correct on Buck Barker's notations. They refer to the collector he acquired them from & the year it was acquired in. I've owned a few thousand of 'his' cards over the years. From what I understand, Buck used to do most of his player research at the Sporting News archive in St Louis. It is standard practice in doing archival research that "pencil" be used over pen, primarily to prevent permanent ink damage to the paper. Looking at the backs of many of Buck's cards, you'll also find his 'shorthand' which indicates the teams / years the player was active and statistics in many cases. It is very likely that Buck took the actual cards with him into the research room (normally only a notebook & single pencil are permitted) and copied this info directly onto the cards.... While some modern collectors may cringe at the thought, Barker was among the most active baseball card researchers in his day, establishing the data that virtually everyone takes for granted in modern checklists (First names particularly). From my experience in handling his cards, more than 75% of his notations were done in pencil.