1935 Baseball Autograph Book - How to handle?
fmaz
Posts: 101
Happy New Year to all!
Got a few questions about an autograph book we have, from my wife's father. I knew that Babe Ruth had signed it, but I hadn't really studied the book until the past week, and once I did... I was amazed.
There are around 70 signatures of major league baseball players in the book (plus some of my father-in-law's high school friends - lol). As I went through identifying them, I feel fairly certain they were compiled in 1935 - as there are about 5-6 players who ONLY played in the majors in 1935.
But the list of players is great. There are about 25 all-stars, and potentially 13 Hall of Famers. I say "potentially" because there are two signatures that I can't really recognize as the signatures I've seen for that player - one being Bill Terry. Makes sense that it would be him... but it looks nothing like the ones I've seen online. The other is Rick Farrel, and it's the same thing.
But the book does have Ruth, Ott, Hornsby, Foxx, Connie Mack, Leo Derocher and a bunch of other greats. Moe Berg is in it too!
Some of the pages only have one or two signatures. Some have 7-8. It varies wildly. One page has a ticket stub glued into it, with Mickey Cochrane having signed the back of it. Wish I could see the front but I don't want to mess with it.
Anyway, we love the book, and our 13-year old son who is a huge history of baseball fan, is just so excited.
I guess our questions are:
1. If authenticated, how is something like this valued? We don't want to sell it, but we might want to insure it.
2. What's the deal with cut signatures? The reason I ask is that the book is great, and having all the signatures is really cool.. but for display purposes we were wondering about taking some of the big names out, and framing them with a photo of the player so we could better enjoy them.
But obviously we don't want to ruin the value of the book, so that option is scary.
I guess mostly just wanted to see what you all thought about it, and to take any advice, suggestions you might have.
Thanks so much,
Frank
Got a few questions about an autograph book we have, from my wife's father. I knew that Babe Ruth had signed it, but I hadn't really studied the book until the past week, and once I did... I was amazed.
There are around 70 signatures of major league baseball players in the book (plus some of my father-in-law's high school friends - lol). As I went through identifying them, I feel fairly certain they were compiled in 1935 - as there are about 5-6 players who ONLY played in the majors in 1935.
But the list of players is great. There are about 25 all-stars, and potentially 13 Hall of Famers. I say "potentially" because there are two signatures that I can't really recognize as the signatures I've seen for that player - one being Bill Terry. Makes sense that it would be him... but it looks nothing like the ones I've seen online. The other is Rick Farrel, and it's the same thing.
But the book does have Ruth, Ott, Hornsby, Foxx, Connie Mack, Leo Derocher and a bunch of other greats. Moe Berg is in it too!
Some of the pages only have one or two signatures. Some have 7-8. It varies wildly. One page has a ticket stub glued into it, with Mickey Cochrane having signed the back of it. Wish I could see the front but I don't want to mess with it.
Anyway, we love the book, and our 13-year old son who is a huge history of baseball fan, is just so excited.
I guess our questions are:
1. If authenticated, how is something like this valued? We don't want to sell it, but we might want to insure it.
2. What's the deal with cut signatures? The reason I ask is that the book is great, and having all the signatures is really cool.. but for display purposes we were wondering about taking some of the big names out, and framing them with a photo of the player so we could better enjoy them.
But obviously we don't want to ruin the value of the book, so that option is scary.
I guess mostly just wanted to see what you all thought about it, and to take any advice, suggestions you might have.
Thanks so much,
Frank
0
Comments
I think we would need scans before anyone would be able to give you a ballpark value on the item.
Best of luck.
Doug
Liquidating my collection for the 3rd and final time. Time for others to enjoy what I have enjoyed over the last several decades. Money could be put to better use.
<< <i>I'd be happy to post a few, but it says the limit is 50kb when I tried to upload? That seems far too small for you to see anything. >>
Use a website to host them and then copy and paste the Link. Photobucket.com or TinyPic.com both work very well.
Doug
Liquidating my collection for the 3rd and final time. Time for others to enjoy what I have enjoyed over the last several decades. Money could be put to better use.
Nick
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Just a few selected pages.
http://s1189.photobucket.com/albums/z428/fmas012/
Doug
Liquidating my collection for the 3rd and final time. Time for others to enjoy what I have enjoyed over the last several decades. Money could be put to better use.
Doug
Liquidating my collection for the 3rd and final time. Time for others to enjoy what I have enjoyed over the last several decades. Money could be put to better use.
However, to echo what some other posters have commented, I would leave it intact. I personally dislike breaking apart unique items because they have their own historical character and are often one of a kind.
Oh, and would anyone have a value ballpark on something like this? I've got no idea.
<< <i>
What a great story - thank you for sharing the photos. This page with Babe Ruth & (one of my favorite boxers of all time) Jack Dempsey is SUPER cool!
Jeff
Forget blocking him; find out where he lives and go punch him in the nuts. --WalterSobchak 9/12/12
Looking for Al Hrabosky and any OPC Dave Campbells (the ESPN guy)
<< <i>
<< <i>
What a great story - thank you for sharing the photos. This page with Babe Ruth & (one of my favorite boxers of all time) Jack Dempsey is SUPER cool! >>
I agree. To have two of the best athletes of the time period on one page is very very cool!! That page alone is worth framing even if it didnt have Durocher or Rip Collins on it. These other signatures just make it that much cooler!!
in reality, a CUT signature is the lowest of all signatures... no history, no story, just something cut from something more special... and you cant go back and fix it.
any signature is far more special with the original item, they just cant be displayed well at times.
If your going to display.... just make a copy of the original and display it with a new photo, keep the original book hidden away for protection...
and most important ...dont let slab-happy guys tell you what to do even though most here said the right thing
PS Earl Mack is the half bro of Connie Mack Jr and both of them are NOT the "Connie Mack" (Cornelius McGillicuddy Sr.)
Looking for 1970 MLB Photostamps
- uncut
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Jeff
Jeff
In this specific case IMO it is worth more intact than if it was sold cut up piecemeal.
As mentioned if you intend to sell it you could consign it to a major auction house and sell it as one item, but cutting up the sigs and getting them individually authenticated will probably get you more money overall if you decide to sell. This type of item with this mix of sigs I just don't see how selling it as one piece will do better than selling individual cut sigs unless you find that perfect buyer for it.
I think our biggest concern is we'd love to be able to enjoy it more, display it in some fashion . And locking away the book doesnt do that. But if this is really worth more than 10k or something, we certainly want it insured and protected, to pass down. So I can't really imagine selling it unless it was worth some crazy amount!
Do you all want to see pics of more pages? Let me know.
<< <i>But if this is really worth more than 10k or something, we certainly want it insured and protected >>
I would say that it is worth more than $10,000 and yes I would love to see more!
My daughter was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at the age of 2 (2003). My son was diagnosed with Type 1 when he was 17 on December 31, 2009. We were stunned that another child of ours had been diagnosed. Please, if you don't have a favorite charity, consider giving to the JDRF (Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation)
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PSA HOF Baseball Postwar Rookies Set Registry- (Currently 80.51% Complete)
PSA Pro Football HOF Rookie Players Set Registry- (Currently 19.80% Complete)
PSA Basketball HOF Players Rookies Set Registry- (Currently 6.02% Complete)
If anyone can add them to a message as someone did before, that would be great. Otherwise I'll try to figure out how to do it a bit later.
Thanks,
Frank
The third photo down... the top autograph (above the drawn line). That's one I haven't been able to ID. Could be Rick Ferrell? But it doesn't look like the other autographs of him I saw online. So not really sure who it is.
To post a pic here simply upload to photobucket and copy the url here.
Thanks for sharing.
My small collection
Want List:
'61 Topps Roy Campanella in PSA 5-7
Cardinal T206 cards
Adam Wainwright GU Jersey
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And I do think we'd like to somehow get a good sense of dollar value... so we can appropriately insure it.
But I do think we aren't going to cut it up.... we never wanted to, but we do regret not being able to display it and were trying to think of a way. Just holding it and looking through it is pretty amazing. I'll be sad to lock it away and not be able to see it. That's our biggest issue.
Honestly, do you really want to pay extra money to PSA to have them tell you it's genuine? If you are keeping it then I've got almost 40 years of autograph collecting experience that can tell you without hesitation that your book is 100% genuine. The only reason to do this is if you are going to sell it yourself. If you sell through a major auction house they will handle the authentication (be careful they will charge you for it unless you negotiate that up front).
You are better off not putting it on display. As with any paper and ink collectibles, the more it is exposed to the elements and light it WILL deteriorate. I've got two wonderful autograph books like yours, one with 1920s-30s baseball players and one with movie stars that never see the light of day. It's no problem taking it out once in a while to enjoy of show off (clean hands!) but you need to keep it in a cool, dry, dark place.
One thing I've been thinking of doing, is maybe along with my son, starting a blog. And we'd go signature-by-signature and do some research into each person who signed the book, and write about them.
I think we'd get a lot of enjoyment out of that, and maybe people would find it interesting to read too.
Give me a - E
Give me a - A
Give me a - V
Give me a - E
Give me a - I
Give me a - T
Give me a - I
Give me a - N
Give me a - T
Give me a - A
Give me a - C
Give me a - T
What does is say? LEAVE IT IN TACT!
Currently collecting 1934 Butterfinger, 1969 Nabisco, 1991 Topps Desert Shield (in PSA 9 or 10), and 1990 Donruss Learning Series (in PSA 10).
<< <i>Give me a - L
Give me a - E
Give me a - A
Give me a - V
Give me a - E
Give me a - I
Give me a - T
Give me a - I
Give me a - N
Give me a - T
Give me a - A
Give me a - C
Give me a - T
What does is say? LEAVE IT IN TACT! >>
-.-
Doug
Liquidating my collection for the 3rd and final time. Time for others to enjoy what I have enjoyed over the last several decades. Money could be put to better use.
Here's an auction (from 2005) for an autograph book that also included Babe Ruth, Connie Mack, and Jack Dempsey.
Last year I posted on eBay a somewhat less interesting autograph book than the OP has for $3500/best offer and got no bites but a couple of $1500-1800 offers. Heritage Auctions had in 2007 a book that was all in pencil but very closely resembles the OP (maybe from the same event?) that sold for about $3500 including the juice.
Just an educated guess really...
<< <i>I'd gladly pay 3 to 4 k for that item. >>
I am suprised at that price estimate. I was thinking like you, that it should be insured for 20-25k.
I obviously know very little about auto's and I can't help to think what would've happened if you and me (winpitcher) would have been bidding against each other!
My daughter was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at the age of 2 (2003). My son was diagnosed with Type 1 when he was 17 on December 31, 2009. We were stunned that another child of ours had been diagnosed. Please, if you don't have a favorite charity, consider giving to the JDRF (Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation)
JDRF Donation
Don't get me wrong, it's an absolutely FANTASTIC piece, and it sounds like it has a perfect home with the original poster and his family, that is going to lead to a lot of quality time between father and son. Congrats on your book, it's something that everyone of us would be PROUD to own. I love your plan for the internet site and researching the signers. Great idea.
Mike