1919-1938 Sports Memorabilia
GUEST:
My grandfather was an avid sports fan. When he was 16, he had a chance to play professional baseball, but he turned it down to work on the railroad. And working on the railroad back in those days, he got free passes on the passenger trains, and he'd go to Chicago to watch his White Sox play, or to St. Louis, and he was very interested in collecting sports information. He had a lot of it, and I brought some of this that I thought was interesting.
APPRAISER:
Great. Now, he stored it over the years?
GUEST:
He had a rolltop desk in the upstairs where he kept all of his railroad records and all his baseball memorabilia. And he passed away in 1960, and the desk was still like it was when he passed away.
APPRAISER:
There's some very wonderful pieces you've brought in. Over here, you have two official programs for the Indianapolis 500. First one over here from 1937-- that's when Wilbur Shaw won. And you have the 1938 program as well-- both very highly sought after by collectors who collect race car memorabilia. The two World Series programs that you have right herein the middle-- 1930. That's the St. Louis/Philadelphia. And you have the 1926 Yankees/Cardinals-- both very highly collectible. World Series programs are always sought after, especially this one is very nice condition, and Yankees is a big plus. When you think of World Series, people always think of the 1919 World Series, Chicago Black Sox-- the big scandal, Shoeless Joe Jackson, et cetera. This is quite a scarce piece. This is a souvenir record book which was given out at the series. Very rare to find in nice condition. 1919 World Series material, in general, is very desirable and quite scarce. I think this is very interesting, because what you have here is a 1919 World Series scorecard, and if you can see up top here, he dated it "October 4, 1919."
GUEST:
He was there that day.
APPRAISER:
The book is actually scored. Some people might not prefer that in that condition. I personally like it that way. It shows he was there. He marked this here, "World Series," and overall, not bad condition at all for something that old. As far as values go, the two Indianapolis programs, I would say, conservatively estimated, you would see somewhere between $500 and $700 on the pair. The World Series programs-- the 1926 program by itself should sell $500 to $700. The 1930 program a little bit less-- maybe $400 to $600. That's taking into account the condition-- a little bit of a crease in the middle, but still very collectible. Now we're going to jump up here to the souvenir record book. Again, scarce. If you flip through it, you'll see photographs of all the players from the team. Joe Jackson and Gandil are in there-- all of the important players. That, conservatively estimated, I would say anywhere from $900 to $1,200. And the score book, which is quite scarce, and again, very desirable, about $1,000 to $1,500. So overall, as a collection, you would see in the range of $3,000 to $5,000. Great collection, wonderful stuff. What you may want to do is go through that rolltop desk and see if there's any more material-- maybe some ticket stubs to go with the games, which would really add to the value of it.
GUEST:
There are ticket stubs and other scorecards. He has these through the '30s. They'll be saved and will be given to my son.
Appraisal Details
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