Beginner looking for advice on Red Sox memorabilia
Marichert
Posts: 8 ✭
I have a bunch of Red Sox memorabilia collected personally between myself and my family.
I have a personally signed Tommy John All Star baseball to me from Ted Williams.
An official 1986 World Series baseball signed by numerous players from the 1986 team. This ball contains signatures from Wade Boggs, Calvin Schiraldi, Marc Sullivan, Steve Crawford, Bob Stanley, Bill Buckner, Marty Barrett, Mike Greenwell, Jim Rice, Bruce Hurst, Al Nipper, Spike Owen, and Ed Romero.
Also,
A personally signed baseball to my dad from Carl Yastrzemski.
A Roger Clemens signed baseball.
Broken, game used bats that belonged to:
Carl Yastrzemski
Jim Rice
Carlton Fisk
Fred Lynn
Jerry Remy
Bernie Carbo
Boomer Scott
And a pair of Jerry Remy's game worn cleats.
Should I spend the money to have all of this authenticated before trying to sell it?
I know it is all authentic as my dad was a spring training bat boy for the Red Sox in the 70's and I am a lifelong fan that had direct access to the team. I've never traded or sold such items and am just looking for some expert thoughts, advice, and/or opinions.
Thanks!
Comments
It’ll probably come down to an “is it worth it” decision. I’m not doubting your story, but anyone can claim to have had direct access to a team and gotten all kinds of autos and memorabilia, and you may actually get some bites with your unauthenticated stuff. But you probably want to look into comparable sale prices for the items you have, figure out how much it’ll cost to authenticate them, and then see if it’s worth the price. As a guy who paid to have a bunch of HOF baseball autos authenticated, I can tell you first hand that just because they’re big names or in the HOF doesn’t mean it’s worth paying someone to authenticate.
PSA’s site makes it pretty easy to calculate an authentication price for autographs; game used memorabilia is a little trickier to get (I’ve used Heritage Auctions for some of those things, as they have connections with authenticators and can save you some time and money).
Jim
Welcome to the boards!
"I have a personally signed Tommy John All Star baseball to me from Ted Williams. "
I have absolutely no idea what that means, a Tommy John signed ball given to you from Ted?
Try to post pictures with inquiries.
Game used bats of HOFers can be worth some nice money.
The Carl Yastrzemski, Jim Rice and Carlton Fisk bats sound interesting.
I would look into getting these three items authenticated, most of the rest of the stuff isn't going to have a lot of value.
Roger Clemens signed baseball with no certificate might be worth $50.00 if it's a real nice example, photo here would help.
People now want items authenticated.
Please take a few pics of the bats and Remy cleats. I'd love to take a look at them. I don't know where you are located but I am in southern New Hampshire.
great stuff. It all depends what your goal is. Game used stuff is tricky. is it spring training game used? is it regular season? alot of variables. awesome stuff as I am a life long red sox guy myself but the easiest and most likely best way to netthe most is to give it to somone like hunt auctions who will do some validation to make sure they are comfortable with it and auction itwith their backing. I suspect you could go to heritage but it is going to cost a lot more and net you less. red sox stuff is great but it's not mickey mantle, it's not a rookie bat or world series bat so heritage isn't going to make it a center piece of give you a big break on the commission. also anything personalized is not going to bring as much and probably wouldn't get it's own lot in a place like heritage.
86 world series ball sounds cool. any single signed balls psa had a special for $15 but it ends today
Some thoughts…
Personalized autographs are often penalized (sometimes heavily) by potential buyers - “To Joe” is only good for Joe’s most of the time.
If possible, photos and/or video of dad on field as a bat boy are worth having handy and any other ‘proof’ you can gather to further help provenance.
Information on the bats will be key. Dates of games will help verify the stories and video/photo matching is very possible for games of the last 50 years as more footage survives than it did, say, 100 years ago.
Imagine the premium you’d get if you can find a video clip of dad running onto the field handing Yaz a new bat to replace one he just cracked and it is the exact cracked bat that you have now?
Provenance translates directly to money, quite often.
Curious about the rare, mysterious and beautiful 1951 Wheaties Premium Photos?
https://forums.collectors.com/discussion/987963/1951-wheaties-premium-photos-set-registry#latest
Ok, thanks for the advice.
The game used stuff (bats and cleats) are different from the baseballs. The bats JoeBanzai talked about are probably worth the most. Do you know generally when they were used? You can look for photos of them being used on sites like gettyimages. As a last resort you can try somebody like Resolution Photomatching to find you some photos of thpose bats being used. Not cheap. They quoted me $500 to match an NFL jersey and I told tem what games they were used. The signed baseballs you can have authenticated by PSA. Maybe wait for a special for autograph authentication.
Ask more questions at game used universe. They know a lot more about game used stuff.
A nice collection! I would keep it if I could, not just because of the history, the team and players, the value, but because having a family collecting dynamic, that is, a close associations with loved ones, some of whom may no longer be here, or one day won't, this collection is a time machine. Instant memories, shared with loved ones.
That said, if selling, I would keep it whole and offer it whole. Doing that will net you a large amount all at once, not in dribs and drabs, and SAVE you a lot in authentication fees. A Red Sox collector will ultimately be your buyer. Someone who is likely experienced in acquiring pieces and signatures like these. Someone with enough hands on knowledge that will be able to tell if the pieces and signatures are proper.
That's the route I'd go. The money you don't spend is what improves your bottom line and not having to get COAs for this and that will improve your take considerably. A real Sox fan won't need the papers. He'll be able to render his own judgment.
Here is the Ted Williams ball..
Carl Yastrzemski bat….
Jim Rice bat..
Carlton Fisk bat..
Taking these to a JSA event this weekend to have them authenticated. There’s one happening locally. It seems easier than mailing them in.
Those bats are NICE!
Good idea on getting them checked out in person instead of mailing!!!!
The autographed balls are ok, but the Williams ball will lose some value as its both personalized and not on an official ball.
I posted the Carleton Fisk, Jim Rice, and Carl Y bat pics earlier in this thread.
Here are the rest of the bats and the cleats.
Jerry Remy’s cleats..
Jerry Remy’s bat..
Fred Lynn’s bat..
Bernie Carbo’s bat..
Boomer Scott’s bat..
It’s spring training used bats. Thanks for the heads up. I’m going to check out Hunt Auctions.
Yeah noticed PSA runs a lot of deals. JSA is doing an event near my hometown and they seem to run cheap deals for in person authentication. Never had anything authenticated, so I’m just figuring this out.
Here are pics of that 86 World Series ball..
Thanks for the input. The bats are from spring training. I’ll have to poke around for some old photos and footage.
Thank you for this advice. This is exactly what I’d like to do. I figured there might be a Red Sox memorabilia collector out there that would like all this stuff.
nice but JSA doesn't authenticate game used equipment do they?
IMF