Newspaper Value?

[mintacular]

I was struck the other day at the flea market when I young (and I think foolish) gentleman offered $500 trade/or cash (not sure) to an older, knowledgable card guy for some ratty 1913 Newspaper which may or may not have featured Babe Ruth in the inside pages--the newspaper was wrapped in some kind of sealed plastic sleeve in which the older guy apparently did not want to open up the pages to see if Ruth was in there... Sorry I can't offer more details as I caught the end of this transaction.

I guess my question really relates to the market value of old newspapers as my impression is that unless the newspaper is 19th c. or earlier, newspaper values are quite low (in comparison to cards). Could anyone help clarify for me values of old newspapers, particularly sports related ones? Is there a niche group of collectors for these? Obviously, you will need to generalize but any info. would be appreciated. Thanks! -Pat

[FrankWakefield]

So I'm waiting for the second chapter of this...

A middle aged novice collector sees this transaction, and asks the old guy what's the deal. He then pulls out 4 more newspapers in the plastic sleeves. He explains that these papers have been selling for $75 to $80 each among smart collectors, and he thought he'd start this young buyer out at $500 for all 5. To his surprise, the young collector took just the one, so he has 4 left. The old guy was selling them for a friend who's grandfather had passed away, and he was hoping to get about $400 or so for all 5. Now that the old guy's sold one for $500, he's willing to sell the remaining 4 for $200 right now this minute, if the middle aged novice collector wants to jump on that great deal...


Final chapter, the middle aged novice collector goes home with his 4 papers and without his $200, and eventually learns that his papers have little or no value. The young guy with the $500 was a shill. He and the old guy are putting more old papers in sleeves after they split the $200.

But I'm cynical on most stuff. I think the buyer greatly overpaid....

[mintacular]

Wow, you are cynical! You are saying that those two were trying to shill me! I walked in after the deal was made, and the conversation was wrapping up. But that's a real interesting thought. At no point did the two acknowledge me, make an offer to me, etc., but that is some great insight....

[FrankWakefield]

Hold on now.... it could have been legit. I'm wrong about stuff sometimes. (I know I'll see someone clip and paste that back at me...)

Were you by yourself? A scam is much more likely if you're on your own. Were you a regular customer of the store, or first time ever in there?

To sink the hook well, cons let you make the move. If they make it then little alarms might go off in your head.

It could have been for real. But tell me this. Which seems more likely to you... a young collector pays an old, wise, (possibly concerned about his reputation or desirous of repeat business) dealer $500 for a 1913 newspaper... or two guys might try to pull a $500 scam on someone???

Only paper I can think of that might bring anywhere near that much would be something from around April 15, 1912... when Hub Perdue pitched a 3 hit shutout victory for the Braves over Christy Mathewson and the New York Giants. Hub's best game of his major league career. The collectible interest in such a paper would stem from the coverage not of that game, but of a new, unsinkable ocean liner, the Titanic, having been crippled following contact with an ice berg.

[mintacular]

The two guys do set up next to each other each week and have some kind of rapport. The younger guy seems a bit dumb to me but I don't have hard evidence of that other than he bought some junk from me at a price that he probably should not have.

The older guy has no incentive (IMO) to rip me off as we have made a few trades, I have bought from him a couple times and to burn the bridge to me in the long haul would not be smart. Like I said, at no point did either engage me about this newspaper (nor did I ask q's).

You raise a legit point though, which is to be very careful and to trust nobody in this business....

[FrankWakefield]

If you see the old guy again and again, if you've had some good dealing with them, then I've over-reacted, I'd be inclined to trust the guy a bit. Why not just outright ask him what the deal was with a $500 newspaper. Maybe there's something to it, you can come back and educate us. Maybe the old guy was shocked about it too...

[mintacular]

now that we have that issue (potentially resolved/put on hold), are there any older sports newspaper worth much?

[steve B]

I haven't quite figured out the old newspaper pricing. I have a bunch of them, and some should be pretty good. I've seen a pricelist from an ephemera dealer with newspapers from the 1800's to more modern, and some are priced in that sort of range $300- 500 or more. But others that seem better to me are only about $30. I checked Titanic ones because I have a couple, and newspaper dealers want real money for them depending on the paper, edition, and how big the headline is. But on Ebay they don't bring much at all - maybe 10% of what the specialist dealers want.

Titanic
http://www.nytstore.com/ProdDetail.aspx?prodId=18978

Gangsters
http://www.nytstore.com/ProdDetail.aspx?prodId=27533

So yes, some of them can be worth something. But the condition and subject really matters, just like cards.

The rotogravure sections usually sell well, especially if Ruth is pictured.