A Good Day at the Antique Stores

[slidekellyslide]

Yesterday my brother and I had the day off so we hit some of the antique malls around our area...the first one we hit didn't have much of anything, but I did pick up a really strange item that must have been a giveaway at Skelly gas stations In either 1960 or 61...it's a styrofoam baseball with Athletics and Hank Bauer's signature printed on it. I have about 3 or 4 styrofoam balls from Skelly, but this is the first I've seen with a signature and team on it.



After going through a couple of boxes of postcards and coming up empty except for one of those "Romantic" baseball themed postcards for $3 we hit the road and hit the next one.....I hadn't been to this one in quite a while and was pretty much floored to see a glass case filled with 19th century baseball memorabilia....Cabinet photos, gloves, catcher's masks....Although I think the gloves may have been closer to 1905 than to 1890's which is what they were tagged. They both had one inch webbing between the thumb and index finger...One was a Des Moines brand??? Never seen it before. The other was unmarked....both for around $500 which is a little high IMO, but they were in outstanding condition. All of the cabinet photos were of Nebraska origin...a couple were actually football teams. Everything in the case was too high to get a deal, but just about right at ebay prices. Only a few cases down from that one though I picked up this Dizzy and Daffy Dean notebook which I'd never seen before.

Also in this case was a mini bat that I think is near the turn of the century...It's made by Withington in Buckfield, Maine...I googled that and it turns out Withington was a brush/broom maker in Buckfield in the 1860s so this bat may even be 19th century. There are some interesting lathe marks on both ends of the bat.


My best pickup of the day though was a 1922 Eastern Exhibit Postcard of Rogers Hornsby for $39.


Overall a pretty good trip...and I was surprised to see a case filled with such quality baseball items in it....it was the kind of stuff you would expect to see at the National or in a Mastro auction not at your local antique shop.

[kjjavic]

Very nice pickups, great bat. For curiosity what prices were they looking for for the cabinet photos? The antique shops around me never seem to have anything sports related. I shoudl keep trying though, seems like you are always finding some steals.

[slidekellyslide]

The cabinets all ranged in the $200-$500 range....I know you're a football collector and I can't remember what the football team cabinet had on it. They had one of those old rubber noseguards that they had $425 on. It was in immaculate condition so that might be a pretty decent price.

[kjjavic]

Damn, sound like they had some really nice stuff. Too bad they knew it

[mjkm90]

They sound a bit high on the cabinets unless they are outstanding images or very early.

[slidekellyslide]

The Cabinets are all outstanding. The baseball cabinets are all definitely 1880s....a couple of them are single player photos with one of them having the player in a pitching pose like you'd see on an Old Judge.