One thing I have noticed over the years is that the overall condition and degree of editorial escapades appearing on a photo sometimes depends importantly on the original source of the photo.
For example, over the past 30 years or so, I have found with my major focus (which, as most of you know, is Mantle) that when I have bought collections from individual sports writers, photographers and players more often then not the condition of the photos (as well as the lack of editorial work on the front) and various types of stamping on the back is far better than those obtained from the archives of newspapers, news agencies, publishing houses, magazines, etc. This makes sense, as many of these individual photos from the collections of sports writers, players and to some extent photographers were not used in publication, at least not as frequently as those in the news/publishing archives. Thus , less handling, wear and tear and editorial incursions.
This was one reason why early in the game, I did a lot of research locating such sources - and many were remarkably productive.
Craig
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