Who was James Grant MacAlister?

[HexsHeroes]

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I really enjoyed the earlier threads about both the Ralph Winnie and Bill Zekus collections. Plus, the Zekus discussion shed alittle light on another collector, Bill Van Buskirk.

Another "old time" collection occasionally referenced is the James Grant MacAlister collection. After his death in November 2004, parts of his collection were sold in multiple auctions over several years by Hunt Auctions. But over the past seven years, I have yet to see any of the more obscure (ultra-rare?) autographs from James' collection appear in Hunt live or internet auctions. Most of the auction items have been of the more common variety. What has happened to the cream of James' collection? James' sister stated that she did not know. The folks at Hunt Auctions only would say that James' collection would be auctioned over several years.

My initial contact with James (I never thought to call him Jim) occurred in 2000, when I participated in one of his monthly autograph auctions, which was advertised in Jeffrey Morey's publication,The Autograph Review (TAR). Over the next four years, I rarely missed bidding successfully in his TAR autograph auctions. I also made several purchases from James, outside of the auctions. During 2004 James began to call me on a nearly monthly basis, to chat about what my current needs were, and about my beloved Tigers (and his Phillies). We frequently shared that we hoped this would be the year for our respective teams, and discussed the strengths and weaknesses of both. While I would consider our phone conversations as being quite friendly (and not so much as business-like), I never felt I could ask him questions about his personal life. I always sensed a very proper, dignified, calm demeanor in his voice. I couldn't help but feel that it would have been rude of me to ask him questions that were more personal in nature. Perhaps I was waiting for him to open that door by asking me the types of questions I wanted to ask him, such as what he did for a living, how long had he been collecting, names of dealers that have been especially helpful, etc. But it never happened. I know he was a deeply spiritual man. The closing salutations to his typed letters bore that out. But I have no idea what he did for a living, or when exactly he began collecting autographs, or who was his first autograph. In his vast collection he had many, many obscure non-Phillies ballplayer autographs, so I know the scope of his collection extended well past the Phillies. My last contact with James was a phone conversation, where he was reviewing my latest group of bids for his current TAR auction. He had a handful of very obscure Detroit Tigers autographs in his collection that he offered to sell to me outright * * *. The conservation ended with James stating that he will get the invoice for the outright sale typed out and mailed to me. I replied that I would have a check in payment back to him shortly after receipt of his invoice. James' typed invoice never arrived. Afew weeks later, I received a letter from his sister Iris stating that James took ill, and eventually died. Since she was not familiar with his autograph dealings, she said that she would not be able to complete any sales or auction transactions. To be honest, I really didn't give a damn about the broken sale. James death was completely unexpected. Several months later, I received a complimentary copy of the Spring 2005 live auction catalog from Hunt Auction. Inside was a note explaining that copy was being sent courteously, of James sister. There was a nice, if brief, biography on James on the front page. But it failed to paint a clear picture of the man behind the vast collection. It's was a shame that James' didn't live longer, to see his beloved Phillies team win the World Series in 2008. For me personally, James Grant MacAlister has been one of the six primary resources contributing to the growth of my collection (along with Jim Stinson, Bill Corcoran, Ron Gordon, Doug Averitt, and Jack Smalling). I was very fortunately to have encountered James when I did.


I would love to hear anything constructive that other members would like to share regarding this collection, and the man that built it.


* * * - items that have not (yet?) appeared in prior Hunt Auction lots of James' collection.