Some of you may have heard about the Braves' memorabilia sale this weekend at Turner. I had the chance to go on Friday. (Sorry, didn't bring a camera.) I got there about a 1/2 hour after the gates opened and headed straight for the Hank Aaron room, which is where the sale was held. The Cards were in town and the crowds each day were huge, so the place was already packed when I got there.
The first thing I saw when I walked in was a table loaded with signed, home-white jerseys. They had guys like Lemke, Charlie O'Brien, Mike Deveraux, Dave Justice, plus Chipper, Smoltz and dozens of others - new and old. I asked about the Chipper and Smoltz and the guy said $300 for each. There was a sign hanging above the table that read "game used jerseys," so these prices got me pretty excited. Then I looked at the tagging and realized that they were just retail shirts with names and numbers. Turns out, the only gamers they had that day were Tyler Yates, Matt Diaz, Mike Remlinger, Kelly Johnson and one or two others, and they were in the $250-300 range.
They had just a handful of g/u bats (Chipper, Andruw, Francoeur, Scott Thorman, Tim Hudson, and one or two others) and each was $300. Lineups cards (signed by Cox) were $100. Signed, (mostly non-fitted) hats started in the $60-70 range. I only saw two gamers and they were Antonio Alfonseca and Mark DeRosa. Tons of signed baseballs were available. Again though, no good buys unless you consider a smudged Leo Mazzone for $70 a bargain.
As for the auction items, a $500 min. bid would have put you in the running for a Frank Robinson signed ball; $4,000 was the min. for a signed clubhouse chair; and $1k might have gotten you game used jerseys from either Cox or Smoltz.
For game used collectors this would have been a disappointing event. Plus, IMHO, most of this stuff wasn't priced to sell, which seemed to defeat the purpose of raising money for charity. Did anyone make it out Saturday or Sunday?
The first thing I saw when I walked in was a table loaded with signed, home-white jerseys. They had guys like Lemke, Charlie O'Brien, Mike Deveraux, Dave Justice, plus Chipper, Smoltz and dozens of others - new and old. I asked about the Chipper and Smoltz and the guy said $300 for each. There was a sign hanging above the table that read "game used jerseys," so these prices got me pretty excited. Then I looked at the tagging and realized that they were just retail shirts with names and numbers. Turns out, the only gamers they had that day were Tyler Yates, Matt Diaz, Mike Remlinger, Kelly Johnson and one or two others, and they were in the $250-300 range.
They had just a handful of g/u bats (Chipper, Andruw, Francoeur, Scott Thorman, Tim Hudson, and one or two others) and each was $300. Lineups cards (signed by Cox) were $100. Signed, (mostly non-fitted) hats started in the $60-70 range. I only saw two gamers and they were Antonio Alfonseca and Mark DeRosa. Tons of signed baseballs were available. Again though, no good buys unless you consider a smudged Leo Mazzone for $70 a bargain.
As for the auction items, a $500 min. bid would have put you in the running for a Frank Robinson signed ball; $4,000 was the min. for a signed clubhouse chair; and $1k might have gotten you game used jerseys from either Cox or Smoltz.
For game used collectors this would have been a disappointing event. Plus, IMHO, most of this stuff wasn't priced to sell, which seemed to defeat the purpose of raising money for charity. Did anyone make it out Saturday or Sunday?
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