Vintage American League Baseballs

[eastonfalcon19]

A friend of mine has 6 William Harridge baseballs. There are 6 baseballs all together, 3 balls are still sealed in the box, 1 ball is opened with the box and the other 2 do not have any boxes. The one ball has American Legion Dept of Penna. stamped on the one label. I would think this takes value away from this ball. I'm not sure if all of the balls are stamped with this. What are the value of these balls. Any information would be greatly appreciated.

[Leon]

We have a few ball collectors on the board though historically that subject seems to cause some drama. It is probably different for baseballs but on common baseball cards I like stamps like that one.....and will pay a premium for them. Again, I wouldn't be surprised if it is completely different with balls. For value, I would give a wild a** guess of about $50 with box and $20 without....again, those are wild a** guesses to get the ball rolling (pun intended).

a quick ebay search leads me to think the one with box is about $100-$150 more, at around 150-200......the balls look to be in the 30-50 range.....again, these are guesstimates based on some ebay stuff....

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1943-REACH-O...item41816b5a69


.

[thecatspajamas]

My gut feeling is that the American Legion stamp probably takes a little off the value, but if all the balls look that nice, they're probably still in the $150 range. I've not seen one with an American Legion stamp for sale before (never looked for one either), but with the Am. Legion not being a pro-level organization (though certainly producing its fair share of pros later on), I think that would be a detractor rather than adding a premium due to scarcity. Since the Legion stamp is on the side panel though, they would still make nice display pieces even if the buyer really would rather not have the additional stamping.

The balls are also early-1950's vintage, so not as early as the one Leon linked to (which, ironically, is being sold by the author of the ball guide that I just looked that info up in).

Again, that is all my conjecture, and others are free to disagree or correct me, but if your buddy wants to sell them at $50 apiece, I'll take all 6

[Leon]

Originally Posted by thecatspajamas

My gut feeling is that the American Legion stamp probably takes a little off the value, but if all the balls look that nice, they're probably still in the $150 range. I've not seen one with an American Legion stamp for sale before (never looked for one either), but with the Am. Legion not being a pro-level organization (though certainly producing its fair share of pros later on), I think that would be a detractor rather than adding a premium due to scarcity. Since the Legion stamp is on the side panel though, they would still make nice display pieces even if the buyer really would rather not have the additional stamping.

The balls are also early-1950's vintage, so not as early as the one Leon linked to (which, ironically, is being sold by the author of the ball guide that I just looked that info up in).

Again, that is all my conjecture, and others are free to disagree or correct me, but if your buddy wants to sell them at $50 apiece, I'll take all 6

Thanks Lance, I was just guessing. I wish there wasn't the big debacle before and we still had a few of the ball collectors that probably left our forum over it.