1960 Pirates signed baseballs

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Posted By: John S

Quick questions. Longer story. In the 1950's and 60's a cousin of mine worked as a clubhouse manager for the Pirates. After the the 1960 World Series he had three baseballs signed by the team and gave them to my uncle. All of the guys sigs are on the balls including Clemente, Murtaugh, Face, Groat, etc. My uncle is looking to sell the balls, probably at auction. I recommeneded that he have the balls authenticated (Spence is going to be in my neck of the woods in April). My questions are: What is the approximate value of these balls? What would be the best auction house to use?

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Posted By: barrysloate

A 1960 Series ball with Clemente is pretty valuable. I would think at least $1000 a pop, but just a guess.

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Posted By: Jodi Birkholm

Baseballs, being super condition-sensitive, can have a wide value range. Even though these were obtained via a source who worked with the team, Pirates balls of this era are notorious for clubhouse (i.e. a batboy, other player ---> ultimately someone other than the player) signing on the behalf of players. Chances are greater than not that the signature of manager Murtaugh was ghost-signed. This is the case with about 90% of 1960's Bucs team-signed balls. I would suggest that you send them into either PSA or JSA to determine if there are clubhouse issues. Values can be figured out after that.

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Posted By: barrysloate

I was thinking about the clubhouse angle too.

I was once consigned a pristine 1943 Dodgers team signed ball, still in its original box, that was given to the family by Harry M. Stevens in 1943 and kept by them for sixty years. I was so confident of the provenance that I sold it without a COA.

Half turned out to be clubhouse signed and I had to return it to the family unsold. Big embarrassment.

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Posted By: Jodi Birkholm

Barry,

Actually, that's quite unusual for a Brooklyn ball from that era. I wrote an article on Brooklyn clubbers that may or may not appear in an upcoming volume on team-signed balls. The proliferation of problems with Brooklyn balls really came into play c. 1948. I could go on at length, but will refrain for now. Although I have seen a handful of Dodger balls from the early 1940's with clubhouse issues, that's actually against the norm! Funny, ain't it?

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Posted By: barrysloate

I think Stevens needed to get a gift for someone, and under those circumstances it may have been difficult to get the whole team together. I believe that's the last autographed piece I ever handled. Too much aggravation.

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Posted By: Mark Steinberg

John:

To answer your questions...

1. James Spence would be a good authenticator to use, but you actually should not have to pay for this service (if you are just planning to consign these items). If you consign to Mastro, Lelands, SCP, AMI or Vintage Authentics, they will normally provide an "Auction House LOA" from Spence or PSA. This is typically issued at no expense to you, the consignor.

I don't know if Hunt's does this, but I do know Hunt's will issue their own LOA (provided they are comfortable with the item...)

2. As far as where to consign... I would recommend Mastro, Lelands, REA, Heritage, SCP/Sotheby's or Hunts. Second tier would be Vintage Authentics, Huggins & Scott, AMI, Historic, or Premier.

Hope this helps, Mark