Large Collection of photos found from early 1950s

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Posted By: Rob

Hi all,
A friend of mine works with someone that somehow came across a photographers large collection of sports photos from the early 1950s, including the negatives. My friend plans on selling this stuff for his coworker and get a piece of it. Supposedly hundreds and hundreds of negatives and even more prints all in binders, including Jackie Robinson and yogi musial and boxers too like marciano. I haven't been able to get any more information yet, but my friend said it came with a packet of paper and mentioned "Long Island Long Ago exhibition", "camberwell collection", and names "raymond chambers and joan chambers".

Just wondering if anyone has any idea about what this could have to do with. What would prices for individual prints and negatives (in general) - a buck or two or more? I had stopped by his desk and he quickly showed me a couple of items and I haven't been able to chat much with him since. Everything looked authentic and the photos looked professional - not like he was just a fan in the crowd, he must've been able to get on the field - maybe a media guy?

Would my friend do better selling this stuff individually or as a whole consigning to an auction house?

Rob

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Posted By: Jodi Birkholm

I would LOVE to see that image of Yogi Musial!

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Posted By: davidcycleback

If the negatives images are nice looking, are of known athletes (stars to lesser but known names like Don Mossi) and are original or at least vintage to the 1950s, they would probably be worth more than the $1-$2 each you said. Stars like Jackson and Marciano certainly would.

I once had an amateur's (amateur quality) Kodak packet of snapshots with the matching 35mm negatives from a 1967 A's fan day and they sold for more than $1-2 each. And the best player was like Rollie Fingers.

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Posted By: Rob

haha, just realized i wrote "yogi musial".

The negatives are worth more than the photo prints, correct? If the prints are $5 each, how much might the negatives go for each, $20?

Thanks,
Rob

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Posted By: davidcycleback

Negatives are much rarer than prints, but are less collectible to the average collector. The prints can be framed on the wall, but the negatives are what makes an album rare and a historical artifact. Individual negatives of Marciano and Musial would sell to collectors. Photo prices are volatile, so I couldn't pinpoint a sales price beforehand. The price of negatives is dependent on the size and the quality of the image (pose, clarity, focus, etc). The negative should be worth more than the matching print, and $5 would be low ball for a good looking original 1950s Musial or Jackie Robinson (stars).

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Posted By: Rob

Thanks David. He plans on selling the original 8x10s for $15 for stars like Musial etc. I'll probably get some from him. He doesn't seem high on consigning to an auction house - instead he'll likely sell them individually.

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Posted By: davidcycleback

He can later consign in bulk what doesn't sell.

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Posted By: micah

The main player in the filed of negatives and photos is John Rogers out of Little Rock, Arkansas. There was a recent story on him and his archive. I believe he has over 2 million images and readily buys negatives. He recently purchased the Barney Stein estate(former Dodgers team photographer). He is a high net worth guy who can afford to pay on large collections and seems to pay fair. I was lucky to view his Conlon collection and it is large....over 1200 original conlons, all from the original Christies auction back in 1996. I originally posted this on the other side. John Rogers number is 501-912-8626. I would call him before selling any of these at 15.00 each. he paid me much, much more for my photos of Spring Training in 1961.

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Posted By: Rob

Thanks David and Micah for the info. I just passed John Rodgers info to my buddy so hopefully he calls him. I'll certainly let you guys know what comes of it!

Thanks,
Rob

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Posted By: Dan Bretta

John Rogers is the dealer who sold the McIntyre photos....a lot of people lamented the fact that he cut up that photo album, but many collectors like myself benefited from it.