The readers don’t always agree with me, and they don’t necessarily agree with each other. Last week’s column on Peter Nash, the notorious memorabilia collector, prompted these two responses:

1. “very good on that scumbag peter nash. i was in boston with my son a few months ago and we went to the boylston street saloon named for ‘nuf said McGreevy’. Great memorabilia there from 19th century. they told me, ‘oh, a fellow named peter nash is our curator.’ almost returned the reuben sandwich.”
2. “Does any of this change the fact that so many of the ‘vintage’ jerseys Halper sold to MLB for them to donate to the HoF were fakes?  (And that Halper’s stories of provenance could not possibly have been true?)”

Reader No. 1 stayed on point. Reader No. 2 chose to ignore Nash and his crooked schemes and question the honesty of Barry Halper, the late renowned memorabilia collector, whom Nash has attacked even years after his death.

In the interest of full disclosure, I don’t know Nash, talked to him on the telephone once, and knew Halper, though I had no knowledge of his memorabilia activities.

What I have learned, however, is that Halper provoked a lot of animosity among collectors, perhaps out of jealousy, perhaps because his critics think he was as big a crook as Nash. However, I have found no one who knew Halper who believes he set out to swindle anyone.

Much of the criticism of Halper, which is very likely misplaced, centers on the Hall of Fame, and a collection of about 200 items that Major League Baseball purchased before Halper died in 2005 and donated to the Hall.

“My understanding is that there were approximately 200 items in the collection,” said Matt Bourne, an MLB spokesman.

He declined to say what MLB paid for the collection, saying, “As a general practice, we don’t discuss financials of any of our agreements.” However, one veteran collector estimated that MLB paid more than $2 million for the collection.

The Hall initially created a separate gallery in the museum to house the collection, but questions about some of the items prompted the Hall to remove them and eventually use the gallery for other purposes, spreading the remaining Halper pieces to other areas of the museum.

Hall officials are reluctant to talk about their operation, especially about items whose authenticity is questionable. “They want it to go away and they want it to go away quietly,” said a man who is familiar with the Hall’s operation.

However, at the end of my second day’s effort to get information, Brad Horn, the senior director of communications, acknowledged, “We no longer have a dedicated Halper gallery. “The items donated to the Hall of Fame have been integrated into our collection.”

Horn said nothing about the authenticity of items having been questioned.

“Over time,” he said, “you integrate items that are donated to the museum. Those items are integrated into the collection. Several exhibits have gone in that space that opened in the late ‘90s.”

There have been reports that some items have been returned, but Horn said, “I can’t confirm that at this time. Donated items are gifted to the collection, but as far as pieces being returned I can’t speak to that.”

A man familiar with Halper and the operation of the Hall and the museum said, “I think it’s a subject they don’t choose to talk about. They walked away from his name and having a Barry Halper room. It existed as a relocation of his collection in his home. Then it became a room where other exhibits were also shown.

“There was stuff in there that was no doubt bad. But I don’t know that Barry knew they were fake. I don’t think he ever knew anyone foisted anything bad on anybody.”

A major collector, who spoke on the condition he not be identified, echoed that view but also questioned the Hall’s role in the developments. .

“The Hall of Fame didn’t have the time or the right people to do due diligence,” he said. “They assumed Halper had done the diligence, but at that time” – when Halper was aggressively buying memorabilia – “people accepted things at face value.”

The Hall of Fame was especially “weak on the jersey side, especially pre- 1900,” the collector said. “Halper had that stuff. My understanding was the Hall did minimal diligence. They assumed everything must be authentic. That was a mistake.”

Did the collector think Halper had defrauded anyone? “He had stuff he didn’t do diligence on,” he said. “He wanted it to be legitimate. The Hall of Fame assumed he had done diligence. You have Halper who wanted it desperately to be legitimate and the Hall of Fame trusted Halper and assumed he had done diligence.”

“The reality is,” he added, “the Hall should be public about this. I think they should be honest and open up. It happens with everybody. It’s better to be upfront about your mistakes.”

People like Nash, however, make the memorabilia business more suspect.

“There are items people have said the Hall of Fame had but we auctioned,” said Robert Lifson, owner of Robert Edward Auction.

Nash is the person who most often makes such declarations.

Based on my conversations with a variety of people, I think the worst that can be said about Halper is that when it came to baseball memorabilia, he was naïve and gullible and had more than enough money to get what he wanted.

No one who knew him has accused him of trying to sell fraudulent items. In fact, he collected for the sake of collecting and having, not for reselling and making a profit.

The person familiar with Halper related an example of how gullible he could be.

“Somebody sold him a jersey from the 1890 Orioles,” he recounted. “He was so happy with it the guy said ‘I can get you others.’ Barry said ‘Really’? The guy came back with all this stuff, and Barry bought it.”