Vast Collection of Cardiff City Memorabilia for sale at Auction

[The Lone Gunman]

How the hell did it come about that the club decided to part with this stuff? How exactly was it "acquired"?

Bear in mind that if what Cardiff55 is saying is true, most of this stuff was acquired during the 1980's - a time when the club was constantly teetering on the brink of bankruptcy and very few people were interested in it, let alone interested is stuff like this.

I'm fairly certain I know who is selling this stuff as I've seen some of it in person, including the directors' ledgers.

[cardiff55]

Bear in mind that if what Cardiff55 is saying is true, most of this stuff was acquired during the 1980's - a time when the club was constantly teetering on the brink of bankruptcy and very few people were interested in it, let alone interested is stuff like this.

I'm fairly certain I know who is selling this stuff as I've seen some of it in person, including the directors' ledgers.

They club didn't sell it in the 1980s, the people who have/had it say they were given it. Joan Hill''s comment above by Mr Soul '68 ring true only it wasn't the club chairmen.

[The Lone Gunman]

The club didn't sell it in the 1980s, the people who have/had it say they were given it.

I didn't say the club sold it in the Eighties. I said that the owner acquired it during the Eighties according to you and that was a time when the club was in turmoil and very few people were interested in it.

To be honest, I doubt that most of this stuff actually was obtained from the club itself. Some of it was no doubt, but I've seen a lot of similar items to the 1927 stuff on eBay or up for auction before.

This is obviously from a private a collection and I think it's pretty obvious whose it is.

[cardiff55]

I didn't say the club sold it in the Eighties. I said that the owner acquired it during the Eighties according to you and that was a time when the club was in turmoil and very few people were interested in it.

To be honest, I doubt that most of this stuff actually was obtained from the club itself. Some of it was no doubt, but I've seen a lot of similar items to the 1927 stuff on eBay or up for auction before.

This is obviously from a private a collection and I think it's pretty obvious whose it is.

Sorry, someone else above referred to the possibility that the club sold some of the stuff at auction. Yes, some would have been acquired from different sources, but I know the bound volumes of programmes were from the club. The owner has the right to sell them, maybe he/she is just cashing in, the need to have stuff or collect diminishes with age and it's better to have the money. I have a friend with a complete set of post war Cardiff homes programmes and his daughter says she's putting them in a skip when he passes, so selling up avoids that scenario.

[The Lone Gunman]

Sorry, someone else above referred to the possibility that the club sold some of the stuff at auction. Yes, some would have been acquired from different sources, but I know the bound volumes of programmes were from the club.

Not all of them, although the 1920's volumes almost certainly were.

I was talking to a friend last night who was employed by the club for a period during the 1980's and we agreed that some of these items were almost certainly given to the owner in lieu of payment for services rendered, while others would have been given to him simply because the club had no use for them but he did - Lot 850 being the best example.

Having seen them first hand, I can confirm those ledgers are fascinating for anoraks like me who are interested in the club's history, but in reality they are just a collection of big, heavy, dusty old books full of handwritten notes which would mean absolutely nothing to the vast majority of modern football fans. If the club did buy them back, I have no idea what it would do with them. They are not the sort of thing that could go on public display and the only time they would be likely to be accessed at all would be if a historian decided to write a book about the relevant period and found the time to spend hours trawling through the ledgers looking for anything of interest.