Results tagged ‘ collectibles ’
The Magical Appearance of the 1869 Red Stockings Card
Just as you think you have seen about everything. . . . Last spring I told you about the Kentucky man who walked into an “Antiques Roadshow” taping in Louisville with a lunch bag carrying a pristine 1919 Reds team-signed ball, one of only a small handful known to exist. He had no idea of the value or historical importance of the ball . . . until he sold it to a private collector for around $50,000 after the TV show’s appraisal. Just before the new year, an antiques/collectibles store owner in Fresno, Calif., named Bernice Gallego (right) sat down to list some store items on eBay. She reached into a box and pulled out ”a little card I found in a bunch of stuff.” The card was obviously very old. Oh, what the heck, Mrs. Gallego thought? She listed the card on eBay for an opening bid of $10 because she didn’t want to pay a higher listing fee. Then, things got wacky in a hurry. She started getting responses asking if the card was authentic and some wanting her to end the auction early and sell them the card right away. She and her husband Al have been operating their store since 1974 and selling on eBay for years but never had such responses. They decided to end the auction quickly and find out exactly what they have. It turns out they somehow owned the most important Cincinnati Reds card, the very first baseball “card” ever produced–the 1869 Peck & Snyder Red Stockings issue. Few are known to exist and their auction value usually shoots well into five figures. One of the cards in pitiful condition–a gaping hole in the middle–sold at auction for $6,106 last fall. Mrs. Gallego has no idea how she acquired the card or how long she’s had it but guesses it probably came from an estate sale, where she and her husband have bought entire storage units with the idea something might bring a few extra dollars. This reminds me of the story of a dealer buying a box of documents a few years ago and later discovering a love letter written by famous Union officer Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain to his future wife just before his heroism at the battle of Gettysburg. Amazin’. The card is obviously appealing to Reds fans because of the great historical nature of that first Red Stockings team. But the card’s scarcity overrides the nostalgia of Hall of Famers Harry and George Wright leading to the team to a 57-0 record and creating the birth of professional sports. The other overriding point of the card parallels the emergence of the 1919 team ball: two remarkably valuable pieces of baseball history and memorabilia magically surface in the hands of two very nice people who had absolutely no idea the value of what they owned. It’s truthfully an astounding story of discovery, again.
Peck & Snyder was an early manufacturer of sporting goods and to promote their business they attached themselves to the more popular teams of the day. In 1869, with the all-professional Red Stockings sweeping the nation, winning every game and catapulting interest in sports to great new heights, Peck & Snyder used a sepiatoned paper team photograph mounted to a 3 1/4-by-4 1/2-inch piece of thin cardboard to create the first distributed baseball card. The back of the card contained a Peck & Snyder advertisement.
Holy Grail! 1919 Reds Team-Signed Ball Surfaces
Monday afternoon I received an e-mail from an old editor friend who strongly advised me to watch “Antiques Roadshow” that night. He said there would be a Reds item on the show that would blow me off my feet. “You’ve never seen anything like this!” he teased. Sure enough, while the Roadshow was in Louisville last summer, a man walked in with three old baseballs. One was for a 1950s Reds team, another was for a 1920s Reds team, and the other contained 26 bold signatures on a ball with some discolorization but was clearly in good shape for its age. And on the sweet spot, someone long ago had drawn a little pennant flying to the left and had scribbled in “National League Champions 1919,” then drawn another flag to the right with the words “World Champions 1919.” Likewise, appraiser Simeon Lipman of Christies just couldn’t believe his eyeballs. “It was pretty incredible,” Lipman said. “Something like this is truly rare. The [Honus] Wagner [T206] card is out there, maybe 50-60 of them, and it’s considered rare. But a 1919 Reds-signed baseball? They’re basically non-existent.” Most pricing guides don’t list team balls before 1920 because the balls are so rare, or simply don’t exist. Autograph baseballs didn’t take off until the mid-1920s, when Babe Ruth became an American icon. And whenever a team-signed ball before 1920 surfaces, it’s usually a “presentation” or “trophy” ball, meaning the ball was signed for some special event or person. That’s why Lipman said on the show there were fewer than five 1919 Reds balls. He knows of one other, and he checked some appraisers who came up with two others. But apparently none as complete as the one seen on the Roadshow. Most baseball fans know the story of Shoeless Joe Jackson and the 1919 Chicago White Sox, who allegedly gave into gamblers and tossed the World Series to the underdog Reds. It’s a story of curiosity, fact and fiction, and along the way one of the best Reds teams ever has been discredited, if not summarily dismissed, as world champions. The owner of the 1919 Reds baseball said he was 13 years old when a friend of his mother’s was moving away and gave him some sports memorabilia. That was around 1970. Since, he has kept the ball in a little curio, not realizing the full historical significance of the ball–or its value. He said his wife almost sold the ball for $200 a few years ago. Lipman appraised the 1919 ball at around $45,000-$50,000, which would make it one of the elite team-signed baseballs in sports memorabilia. It’s truly a museum piece. The only known 1916 Boston Red Sox team ball is in the Hall of Fame. The king of all team-signed balls, a 1919 Black Sox ball with 22 signatures, sold at auction in 2000 for a record $93,666 for team balls. An 1869 Red Stockings trophy game ball sold at auction for just over $61,000. To further enhance the value of the 1919 Reds ball, history is also beginning to step back and take a closer, more favorable look at this team, as Hall of Fame outfielder Edd Roush always claimed it should. They won 96 games with a pitching-heavy staff and defense that allowed the fewest runs in the league. Historians in recent years have begun to review these Reds as fully capable of winning the Series, Black Sox Scandal aside. As someone who loves Reds memorabilia and has a decent stash of their collectibles, the existence of the 1919 ball is a tremendous–if not financially troubling–discovery. I do answer to a higher god and her pissy li’l dog. Just a few weeks ago I posted some images of my Reds team-signed balls for their other World Series-winning teams–1940, 1975-’76 and 1990. C. Trent Rosecrans commented, ” . . . I’m guessing 1919 is a tough get.” Said I: “To the best of anyone’s knowledge, a 1919 Reds team ball does not exist. And if it did . . . whoa! The price would head north toward six figures.” And now one surfaces, like magic, perhaps the holiest of Reds grails. Ms. R curiously asked if I would be a bidder if the ball came up for auction. I seriously would. I’d take out a second mortgage to pay the bill. And the reason is because of the 1919 team’s historical significance, and the rarity, completeness and condition of the ball. Plus, packaging all five Reds championship team baseballs would comprise one helluva retirement portfolio. The stock market may rollercoaster, but a collectible such as this 1919 Reds ball? It’s only going up-up-up over time.
My jaw fell wide open. Ms. R said, “honey, do you have one of those balls?” Uh, no. Yet right out of nowhere this walk-of-life fellow strolls in with a 1919 Cincinnati Reds team-signed baseball containing all the key players, manager Pat Moran and owner August Herrmann.
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