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value of papers



We have recently been approached by a member of a local historical
society who bought some papers at an auction, and would like to sell
them to us. These papers are files from the railroad company that used
to run the railroad that goes through or next to our land (I"m not
sure if our land is considered to go to the river bank, or to the edge
of the railroad easement). The papers in the file are correspondence
between that railroad and the former owner of our property, and deal
with "driveway and fencing," presumably for the railroad tracks.

These papers seem to be of marginal interest for our archives,
although we do collect some materials related to the former owner (a
Jesuit novitiate), and there is a teensy tiny percent of a chance that
at some point these papers might be useful for legal purposes.

The person is asking us, in exchange for the "50-100 pages" to barter
her "dinner-for-two in three of your restaurants" (the wording of her
e-mail is such that it is not clear to me if she is asking for dinner
for two or dinner for six). Considering that dinner for one could
easily come to $50 or $60, this price sounds a little steep to me. My
thought is to counter-offer the price she paid at the auction, plus,
say, a $20 or so finder's fee.

Does anyone have any thoughts on this?  Thanks.

Christine Crawford-Oppenheimer
Special Collections Librarian/Archivist

Culinary Institute of America
1946 Campus Drive
Hyde Park, NY  12538
(845) 451-1757
c_crawfo@culinary.edu

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