Original Photo Hemorrhage on Ebay- Comments solicited

[Forgotten Field]

Reference auctions such as the below:

http://cgi.ebay.com/WWII-P-47-original- ... 240%3A1318

I have seen the breaking up of albums and individual photo prices rising for some time. I was wondering:

1. How can we stop the loss of the groupings? This is a loss of a research tool that is irreplaceable.

2. Has anybody had luck keeping these groupings together? Has the value of the individual photos become too high to do this?

3. Does this stir the thoughts of anybody here on WIX? What can we do to save this very important, under the radar documentation?

[Holedigger]

At the VERY LEAST I would like to see albums like that be scanned at high resolution, and kept together as a collection, even if they sold the CD of pics, but also passed on a copy to Squadron Association, or Air Force groups for archival purposes along with ANY notes that may have been scribbled in the album and personal ID and story of owner!

Breaking them up and cashing them in one at a time really destroys their historical provenance!

[Second Air Force]

It truly is sad to see collections disassembled and sold piecemeal. At least the photos and documents are being saved from the dumpster in these cases. Thousands of historical items have simply been discarded.

Scott

[k5083]

FF, taking your questions in reverse order, yes, as a lover of photography as well as planes, I hate seeing this happen. I have saved one such collection. I would save more if I could. But generally you have to know the owner and be there at the right moment when a decision like this is made. Generally, this type of thing happens when the owner does not know anyone or believe there is anyone willing to take in the collection and do the right thing with it, or else the owner or his estate needs to maximize the value from it. If there is an imperative to maximize the value, there is not much you can do because the sum of prices offered for the parts will invariably be more than the whole. Worse yet, in any photo collection, 90% of the value will be in 10% of the pics (maybe even 98% in 2%) so once the cream is skimmed, the rest of the pile has very low market value and may be trashed.

Another problem with these piecemeal sales is that everyone forgets about copyright. Whoever buys these pics probably has no right to publish them and a reputable publication will not touch them and that severely limits how they can be used down the road.

The only way to save these AFAIK is to get in touch with the vets and let them know that posterity wants their photos and should at least get a crack at them prior to disposal. Those who know lots of vets ought to bring that up. Unfortunately a lot of vets don't regularly encounter folks like us who see the value of their mementos.

August

[Mike Bates]

I think many "reputable" publishers use them. Also note that just because a photo is in one persons album does not mean they took the photo. I have seen many of the exact same photo show up in different locations. Many times photo's were taken and traded or sold to other soldiers. For example I'm reading the squadron history for the 17th Photo Recon Squadron and they talk about selling or trading photo's for food and beer. If they were taken by a squadron photographer and processed on the goverment's dime I don't think there's a copyright problem but how do you know if thats the case or not? Many times there no reasonable way to know.

There's no real way of stopping them from being sold piece meal except for big $$$. Sometimes you can contact a seller on ebay and work out a deal for the whole lot. I did that with a 34th PRS grouping. But you better be ready to pay, most of them know what their worth and if you just try to low ball them they just sell it piece meal and after having that happen a few times they will not even consider offers anymore. There selling it to make money and fast.

If you know any vets just ask them if you can scan or make copies of there photo's and offer to pay them. I figure most would refuse payment but I'm sure there's some out there that could use a few extra dollars. Make sure you leave them with multiple ways to contact you and make the scan/copies in a timely manner and take very good care of their belongings (don't haul it around showing all you buddies). Might not hurt to see if they would like a copy also. You can let them know that if they ever consider parting with it or have no one to pass it on to that you would be interested.

Mike

[Jack Cook]

Speaking only of this auction. I didn't see anywhere that indicated this is from a broken up collection.
I know this fellow and he's a good guy who's parting with some extras.
He doesn't need the $$ and it's a chance for someone else to enhance their collection.
BTW Greg has a large collection with many amazing groups and would never break them up to sell piece meal