How Important Is Provenance To You?

[barrysloate]

Joann nailed it and I think the original post was not about which famous collector may or may not have been the previous owner of a card. The more important provenance concerns original owner collections that are fresh to the market, and therefore are most likely not tampered with. Every collector should be willing to pay a premium for collections like those.

[Leon]

Originally Posted by barrysloate

Joann nailed it and I think the original post was not about which famous collector may or may not have been the previous owner of a card. The more important provenance concerns original owner collections that are fresh to the market, and therefore are most likely not tampered with. Every collector should be willing to pay a premium for collections like those.

I only pay premiums for penultimate cards!!!

On a more serious note it was really fun and interesting to go through the collection of Trucker Boy's grandad's 750+ cards that were collected in the 1910's. Basically, since they were inherited from his grandad, I was getting them from the person who collected them out of the packs and original venues. Going over them with Mark M., as I opened each package, I was being told what to look for. There were different groups of cards collected together and these fit that mark perfectly.

[Al C.risafulli]

For me, it's something that has value, but not in every case.

I own a couple of those Casey Stengel Mayos that Jay showed earlier today - Clarkson, Rusie and Duffy, I believe. When they became available, they were perfect because I have a large collection of Casey Stengel correspondence from the early 1900s through 1975. Owning a few of his baseball cards was a nice addition to the collection.

I also have an Eddie Collins cabinet that was owned by Collins, and a Joe Tinker cabinet that was owned by Barry Halper.

Eventually I'll pick up a Nagy and a Carter, just to have cards that were owned by those guys.

What I REALLY would like, though, more than any other card I could possibly own, would be one - just one - example of one of Lionel Carter's 1938 Goudeys. The idea of owning a card that was pulled out of a pack of my favorite set in 1938, then put away for 70 years, is just mind-boggling to me. Want.

-Al

[ethicsprof]

I hear you, buddy, about Carter and the Goudey.
And I'm pulling for you.
all the best for the holidays,
barry

[Al C.risafulli]

Thanks, Barry, and best wishes to you as well.

Unfortunately I don't think that set will ever be broken up. It was purchased by Scott Ireland, and I thought at first that he might combine the best of the Carter set with the best of the set that he had been building, but unfortunately that didn't turn out to be the case.

It was such a beautiful and pristine set that it's best for the hobby to keep the whole thing together, but boy, I'd love to have just one.

-Al