What's the greatest item you've ever seen for sale/at auction?

[LastingsMilledge85]

Re: What's the greatest item you've ever seen for sale/at auction?

Back at a 2007 auction at Shea Stadium they had a GU Lastings Milledge "Los Mets" jersey with a huge grass stain on it. The opening bid was a fortune because it was back when he still had potential. I have no idea if or how much it sold for, lucky me walked away with a Guillermo Mota half zip jacket.

[joelsabi]

Re: What's the greatest item you've ever seen for sale/at auction?

Rudy,

I couldn't respond when you posted this thread, but one item immediately popped into my head when I read this.

A few years back, there was a discovery in the hobby that I was really excited about.

For years, no one knew what the fait was of the jersey Roger Maris wore when he broke Babe Ruth's 60 home runs in a season record in '61. The few '61 jerseys known of Roger's had been checked over and over but none matched any of the ample photographs of the occasion. Remember, there were tons of pictures taken of Roger Maris hitting the home run, rounding the bases, celebrating on the field, in the locker room, etc.

Then one day, a collector who happened to have a 1960 Maris jersey decided it was time to part with it. Long story short, the sleeves appeared "short", kind of like the ones on the jersey Maris was wearing when he hit the monstrously historic 61st homer. After comtemplating the possibilities, subsequent photo checks produced an exact match. The jersey Roger Maris was wearing the day he hit that famous bomb in 1961 was in fact a 1960 jersey held over to the next year as a "back-up" jersey, an "extra" so to speak, by the equipment manager.

That always struck me as being one of the greatest finds in our hobby, and one of the greatest items I have ever seen in auction. If I recall correctly, it sold somewhere in the mid $300,000's before the buyers juice was added. Nice discovery.

good memory. here it is online. easier to read if you have the book smithsonian baseball.

http://books.google.com/books?id=_ZZxXG89PAIC&pg=PA100&lpg=PA100&dq=%22in+fact+all+pinstripe+uniforms,+are+unique%22&source=bl&ots=A5L6wdTDUM&sig=X3NdObAhl9hd8D9_SS3BO5thDNA&hl=en&ei=8TivSo-uIIb0sgOu2rDHCw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1#v=onepage&q=&f=false

[xpress34]

Re: What's the greatest item you've ever seen for sale/at auction?

A few years back, there was a discovery in the hobby that I was really excited about.

For years, no one knew what the fait was of the jersey Roger Maris wore when he broke Babe Ruth's 60 home runs in a season record in '61. The few '61 jerseys known of Roger's had been checked over and over but none matched any of the ample photographs of the occasion. Remember, there were tons of pictures taken of Roger Maris hitting the home run, rounding the bases, celebrating on the field, in the locker room, etc.

Then one day, a collector who happened to have a 1960 Maris jersey decided it was time to part with it. Long story short, the sleeves appeared "short", kind of like the ones on the jersey Maris was wearing when he hit the monstrously historic 61st homer. After comtemplating the possibilities, subsequent photo checks produced an exact match. The jersey Roger Maris was wearing the day he hit that famous bomb in 1961 was in fact a 1960 jersey held over to the next year as a "back-up" jersey, an "extra" so to speak, by the equipment manager.

That always struck me as being one of the greatest finds in our hobby, and one of the greatest items I have ever seen in auction. If I recall correctly, it sold somewhere in the mid $300,000's before the buyers juice was added. Nice discovery.

Joel and Steve -

I'll have to look - and I'll scan the pages if I remember it right - but I believe the 'collector' they were referring to in the Smithsonian article is the late Barry Halper. I have the Auction Catalogs from the Halper Collection Auction and if memory serves, I believe Barry actually owned that Maris jersey for a time.

I'll check and get back to you.

- Chris

[yanks12025]

Re: What's the greatest item you've ever seen for sale/at auction?

I would say for the biggest item to go up for sale was the jersey Lou Gehrig used during his famous speech.

[legaleagle92481]

Re: What's the greatest item you've ever seen for sale/at auction?

Shoeless Joe Jackson's game used black Betsy bat. It has since made its way to Ebay where it was for sale for a small fortune by Mitchell Marketing the Philly company that used to have Ryan Howard's exclusive autograph rights.

[joelsabi]

Re: What's the greatest item you've ever seen for sale/at auction?

Joel and Steve -

I'll have to look - and I'll scan the pages if I remember it right - but I believe the 'collector' they were referring to in the Smithsonian article is the late Barry Halper. I have the Auction Catalogs from the Halper Collection Auction and if memory serves, I believe Barry actually owned that Maris jersey for a time.

I'll check and get back to you.

- Chris

Hi Chris,

I did a quick 2-minute pass on the catalog and found photos of vintage Yankee pinstripes but could not locate it. Maybe I just missed it.

Anyways it would not surprise me if many, if not most, of the the early years items from collectors featured in the the book Smithsonian Baseball came from the Barry Halper's Collection. There are so many photos that would pop out at you if you looked at both the Smithsonian Baseball book as belonging formerly to the Halper Collection. Mr. Halper was an amazing collector.


Tell me if you have better luck.

Joel

[xpress34]

Re: What's the greatest item you've ever seen for sale/at auction?

Hi Chris,

I did a quick 2-minute pass on the catalog and found photos of vintage Yankee pinstripes but could not locate it. Maybe I just missed it.

Anyways it would not surprise me if many, if not most, of the the early years items from collectors featured in the the book Smithsonian Baseball came from the Barry Halper's Collection. There are so many photos that would pop out at you if you looked at both the Smithsonian Baseball book as belonging formerly to the Halper Collection. Mr. Halper was an amazing collector.


Tell me if you have better luck.

Joel

Joel -
I too just did a quick pass... it's been a few years since I've cracked into those... Anyway, it is quite possible that I'm thinking of the Smithsonian (I have that book too), but I could swear I read somewhere that Halper once owned that jersey...

That said, while scanning the Halper Auction books, I did notice one jersey that blew me away - not even GU!

Apparently Halper owned a Gehrig 'presentation' jersey that was signed by Lou and given to family friends. Upon his death, they returned the jersey to Gehrig's widow who later gave the jersey to Halper. No year stitched in and no patches, so it is not believed to have seen game use, BUT it is the ONLY known Gehrig AUTO jersey in exsistence!

All the best -

Chris

[yankees24]

Re: What's the greatest item you've ever seen for sale/at auction?

for me personally, I now see a tino Martinez game used 2001 World Series jersey on Ebay. my heavenly grail but ah, just too much

[34swtns]

Re: What's the greatest item you've ever seen for sale/at auction?

Since the vast majority of Walter Payton jerseys that come up for sale are fakes, I'd have to say that the very few, (and by "very" I mean less than 3), legit Payton jerseys I've seen are the ultimate in this Bears fan's opinion.

A close second (for me anyway) would have to be the three orange alternate jerseys worn by Brian Urlacher that have come up for sale. For modern day Bears collectors they have to be considered "the holy grail". I've been fortunate enough to own two of the three.

[gingi79]

Re: What's the greatest item you've ever seen for sale/at auction?

I don't think it is the greatest item but I saw and touched the Paul Henderson 1972 Summit Series jersey at last summer's MeiGray show. With the juice, this jersey just sold for: $1.3 million dollars through Classic Auctions.

$1,300,000.00 dollars. For a used shirt. The buyer paid $200,000.00 in Buyers premium alone. In other words, the "honor" of spending a million dollars cost this buyer two hundred thousand dollars. That borders on Usury in my book.

I am a hockey fan. I understand how important the series was to Canada Hockey fans. But when you could purchase 5 to 10 museum worthy grail pieces using the buyers premium alone, that's ridiculous. Do I wish I had that kind of money for a game worn shirt? Of course! But I'd never spend it on any one item. I mean what do you do with a jersey like that? How do you display it? I'd be afraid to look at it, it would wind up in a safe deposit box somewhere in Switzerland. And what fun would owning something you had to store in a box?

[spartakid]

Re: What's the greatest item you've ever seen for sale/at auction?

I don't think it is the greatest item but I saw and touched the Paul Henderson 1972 Summit Series jersey at last summer's MeiGray show. With the juice, this jersey just sold for: $1.3 million dollars through Classic Auctions.

$1,300,000.00 dollars. For a used shirt. The buyer paid $200,000.00 in Buyers premium alone. In other words, the "honor" of spending a million dollars cost this buyer two hundred thousand dollars. That borders on Usury in my book.

I am a hockey fan. I understand how important the series was to Canada Hockey fans. But when you could purchase 5 to 10 museum worthy grail pieces using the buyers premium alone, that's ridiculous. Do I wish I had that kind of money for a game worn shirt? Of course! But I'd never spend it on any one item. I mean what do you do with a jersey like that? How do you display it? I'd be afraid to look at it, it would wind up in a safe deposit box somewhere in Switzerland. And what fun would owning something you had to store in a box?

Well if he can afford to drop that kind of money, he can probably afford to build a walk-in, climate controlled, safe to store it in.

[Mulligans]

Re: What's the greatest item you've ever seen for sale/at auction?

Greatest...I don't know....but absolutely very cool.....Bill Belichick's 80 page hand written Defensive play book from the undefeated 2007 season.

[CampWest]

Re: What's the greatest item you've ever seen for sale/at auction?

Stephen Strasburg 2010 Bowman cards. Hands down.

[flota89]

Re: What's the greatest item you've ever seen for sale/at auction?

Stephen Strasburg 2010 Bowman cards. Hands down.

Yea me too. I like the fact that they are bright colors! Some are gold, some silver, some red! That has to be expensive! Much better than any game used jersey or anything.

[34swtns]

Re: What's the greatest item you've ever seen for sale/at auction?

Bill Belichick's 80 page hand written Defensive play book from the undefeated 2007 season.

Jeff, don't you mean "undefeated regular season"?

Sorry, bro', I just love rubbin' that in!