This item in today’s Staradvertiser.com caught my eye.

Kauai man makes rare find in auction item

The story describes an auction “find” consisting of a couple of old newspaper clippings tucked into a pair of old books.

Tucked away were newspaper clippings, dated Oct. 31,1965, and May 28, 1974, which included information about Mabel Wilcox, Pratt’s great-aunt, and her influence on Kauai. She was a nurse, commissioner of public health, one of the founders of Wilcox Memorial Hospital and considered one of the island’s most remarkable women.(backslash)

“I’m a Wilcox, so the clippings are pretty special to me,” he said.

He knew the old clippings were in the books before he made the winning bid of $250, but didn’t know what they were about. Once he read them that night, he was elated.

“They’re pretty valuable,” he said. “I’m lucky to have bid on this.”

I noticed the story because I enjoy a good auction, but there are a couple of things I don’t understand here.

First, can any 1960s or 1970’s era newspaper clippings be “pretty valuable.” Personally valuable to a relative, no doubt, but monetarily valuable? Don’t think so. If old clippings can be monetized, I’m ready! I’ve got piles of them.

But here’s the real puzzle.

The Star-Advertiser story is attributed to Associated Press. But the Garden Island newspaper, Kauai’s only daily, is now owned by the S-A and, sure enough, a brief search quickly turned up the original Garden Isle story, “Rare find an auction highlight,” by Garden Island writer Bill Buley.

So why did the S-A drop Buley’s byline and instead attribute the story, which appears to be reprinted pretty much word-for-word from the original, to AP? A mistake? A way to obfuscate the growing inter island media monopoly? A relic of AP’s contract? It’s just one of those little corporate puzzles.