Major Baseball Memorabilia Auctions of Past 25 Years?
 

I'm always fascinated by looking through old auction catalogs to see what great pieces have been offered, including many that may never surface again. Besides the 1991 Copeland auction at Sotheby's, and the Halper auction, what are some other significant baseball auctions over the past 25 years or so?

Rucker Collection
 

<img src="http://www.sportsantiques.com/Rucker%20Catalog%20Best/Front%20Cover.jpg"/>

http://www.sportsantiques.com/and_more.htm
There was the Mark Rucker collection that was auctioned in November 1995 by Bill Mastro and Dan Knoll in their then auction concern "Best of Yesterday"...I think maybe Dave Bushing may have been part of it too...It was a heck of an offering...you can read a little about it in the link above in the 4th paragraph...

Legendary's Auction of the Bill Mastro Collection a couple of years ago was pretty epic. Mastro's infamous status aside, it was an amazing and unique offering of vintage Memorabilia. It featured one of the most attractive Catalogues ever produced (IMHO), as well.

+1

How about the obvious choice, the famous Barry Halper auction?

In spite of some of the items in his collection having questionable provenance, these auction books are amazing to look at. What a collection!

Mickey Mantle Guernsey's
 

The auction of Mickey Mantle's personal items by Guernsey's at MSG in December 2003.

I couldn't afford anything, but just being there to see the items on display was enough for me!

http://i997.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps62c3f1ea.jpg

How about the "Historic Comiskey Park Auction" in 1991.

I really appreciate all of the replies. Outside of Copeland, Halper, and Mastro, what other significant private collections have been offered for sale (if any) at major auction? While his collection was not as large as some of the others, the Seth Swirsky book from Heritage is nice to look at, as well as the Dmitri Young collection from SCP. I'm always on the lookout for auction catalogs of great private collections.

2005 Lelands/Busch Stadium Auction, from the demolition of the St. Louis Cardinals stadium. Everything from game used jerseys displayed at the stadium to stadium signs to clubhouse urinals.

In the mid 80's Wrigley Field did a renovation and had an auction/garage sale. Picked up these seats for $20. Probably the best value purchse I have made

How about the Baseball Magazine photographic archive that was disposed of in a 1996 Christie's auction.

Craig

Thanks! That's another good one. Is there a good place to buy old auction catalogs? I know of Catalog Kid, Amazon and eBay, but are there others that I'm missing? I know that I used to have the Legendary Auctions' Bill Mastro Collection catalog but I think I may have accidentally gotten rid of it. I haven't been able to find another.

Advertise that you are interested in buying these in the B/S/T section of net54. I routinely see other board members selling catalogs there.

You might be surprised! ;)

Heritage Auctions has had some killer memorabilia as of late. Check out their live auction catalogs from the last 2-3 years (live events at the Nat'l and live events in February in NYC). Museum quality artifacts.

Legendary's Dreier Collection auction. Held across three auctions, it was pretty amazing.