Conference school::sports_memorabilia

255.0. "F Y I - Sotheby's Auction of BB Cards" by EUCLID::MACFARLANE () Mon Mar 25 1991 12:05

    Excerpts taken from "The Wall Street Journal", Monday March 25, 1991
    without permission.
    
    "Sotheby's Rare Baseball Cards Sale Is a Hit As Childhood Pastime
     Joins Big Leagues"
    
    .......Eager bidders in a sale at Sotheby's Holdings Inc.'s New York
    auction house pushed up the price for a rare baseball card with the
    likeness of early Pittsburgh Pirates star Honus Wagner to a record
    $451,000.  A 1952 Mickey Mantle card sold for $49,500.
    
    	Los Angeles Kings hockey team owner Bruce McNall, who bought the
    Honus Wagner card in a partnership with the team's Wayne Gretzky, said
    some people had told him he was "nuts" to pay so much.
    
    .......Altogether, the collection brought in $4.6 million, in a 10%
    commission for the auction house.  That was about 16% below the low end
    of the firm's presale estimates of $5.5 Million to $7.7 million.
    
    .......Rare, top-condition baseball cards with pictures of big name
    stars went for record prices.  But 19th century baseball cards, those
    that weren't in mint condition, and some sports memorabilia didn't sell
    well.  The most expensive lot at the sale, a complete collection of the
    World Series pins issued from 1911 through 1988, failed to find a buyer
    at its estimate of $250,000 to $300,000; bidding stopped at $170,000.
    	Any dealer or collector who bets that the Sotheby's auction will
    mean higher prices across-the-board "will be sadly disappointed," said
    Robert Wynne, who writes a monthly column on sports card collecting for
    the San Antonio (Texas) Light newspaper.  "Cards at the high end, over
    $1,000, are doing well, because they attract people other than sports
    fans, but cards in the middle price ranges are suffering, and selling
    for below book value."
    
    ....After the final gavel fell Saturday, only 16% ofte items remained
    unsold.
    	Still, the record prices prompted some concern among collectors and
    dealers that they were watching for a market top.  For years, dealers
    have been able to tell collectors, "If you don't buy it, [Mr.] Copeland
    will," said Bill Mastro, a baseball card dealer who helped Mr. Copeland
    assemble the collection and worked for Sotheby's setting prices on the
    items.  "Now, they might be saying, 'Well, now that Copeland's not
    around, why do I have to pay that?'".
    
    .....Bidding for the Honus Wagner card, dubbed "The Holy Grail" by
    Sotheby's auctioneer Robert Wooley, started with a $228,000 offer from
    Aspen, Colo. businessman Mark Friedland and escalated rapidly.  Four or
    five buyers vied for the card well into the $300,000 range.  The final
    $451,000 price - was more than triple the presale estimate and the previous
    record for any baseball card.
    
    	The mint condition card, circa 1910, is extremely rare because the
    Pirates shortstop opposed cigarette smoking and requested Piedmont
    Cigarette company withdraw the card from their packs.  About 40 cards
    are thought to be left, bit most  are in less than mint condition.  Mr
    McNall quipped that he'll be keeping the card in either a bank vault
    "or in the spokes of the wheels of my bike."
    	In other highlights of the sale, a 1952 Mickey Mantle Topps
    baseball card, expected to sell for $12,000 to $15,000, sold for
    $49,500.  An autographed baseball from the 1939 Hall of Fame induction
    ceremony, signed by Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb and other players, sold for
    $20,900, double the low estimate.
    
    ......At one point during the bidding, Mr. Gidwitz, bidding from the
    front row, stood up, turned and yelled at the bidder in the back of the
    room who was competing against him for a 1952 Bowman uncut sheet of
    cards estimated to sell at about $10,000.  Mr Gidwitz, who himself had
    set a limit of $25,000 for the set, went to $34,000 in the heat of the
    chase, but lost to an anonymous bidder who paid $38,500.
    
    
    
    
    
    Reprinted for your enjoyment and comments.
    
    PM

    
    Thanks,
    Mike

    I'LL BE getting a complete list of all the items sold, and at what
    price.  I'll try to follow up and post some of the more interesting
    ones.