autograph book w/ruth & gehrig rough guess value

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Posted By: anthony

a friend of mine has an autograph book that he got from his uncle about 10 years ago. he was wondering what it was worth. he thinks it could be worth about 75K but i think far less. i told him about this site and he's going to try and get me some photos to post. he told me he has babe ruth, lou gehrig and a pitcher named red something or other on one page. lou gehrig is also on another page in the book along with 30 other players from the 20's and 30's. cobb, unfortunately is not included anywhere. i do not think the others are huge stars but he will get me the names later as well.

anyone have a guess as to what this book could sell for as a book and not pieced out (until sold of course)????

thanks, and i'll try to post pix as soon as i get them.

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Posted By: David Atkatz

Red Ruffing.

Nowhere near $75k, unfortunately. The Ruth/Gehrig page, if nicely done, could go for $6-7k. If there's a page with Tony Lazzeri, another $1500 or so.
By the time Ruffing showed up, the only other really valuable 1920s signers, Huggins and Shocker, were gone, so I doubt they're in the book.
All told, with another Gehrig signature, I'd say $10-12k.

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Posted By: anthony

ahh, thats it, red ruffing. thank you! still waiting for a reply with the names to share and hopefully pictures

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Posted By: davidcycleback

He can search Mastro, REA, Heritage auctions to see what cut Ruth and Gehrig signatures are worth. If sharp and clean, those would be worth at least a couple of thousand each. A Gehrig cut signature sold for about $3,000 in the last Mastro Auction.

If the signatures are cut out, the value is the sum of the cut signatures. It may be worth less as a whole, as the buyer would be buying the signatures 'in bulk.' The exception may be if it contains a tremendous assortment of Yankees players, as the Yankee specialist will want it. Ordinarily, a Carl Yastremski fan may only want the Yaz signature and the Pete Rose fan may not want a Red Sox player's sign, which is why a group lot will can for less than the singles sold separately. You can maximize your dollars by selling as singles, as you get top dollar. The Rose sig receives Rose fan price and the Yaz sig gets Yaz fan price. In your case, if they're all Yankees players, then the Yankee fan may want them all.

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Posted By: Jon Canfield

Here's an interesting item I purchased years ago... It's a newspaper that has been affixed to a piece of cardboard and postalyl used (make-shift postcard I guess).

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Posted By: Jon Canfield

Couple more... This ball was purchased from the original owner who obtained the signatures as a young kid. It also came with the original family photos of the owner with Ruth and Ruth signing the ball.

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Posted By: anthony

here are the names of the players' autographs in the old autograph book. after seeing it first hand, i doubt that any of them are fakes...he would like a rough guess of the auction house value...he's hoping for $50k plus but i dont know enough to say yes...the first group i think are "HOFers", the second group are "notables" as he puts it.

group 1: Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig (twice), Lefty Gomez, Walter Johnson, Ted Lyons, Eddie Collins, Mickey Cochraine, Joe Cronin, Kiki Cuyler, Bill Dickey, Frankie Frisch, Charlie Gehringer, Chic Hafey, Gabby Hartnet, Billy Herman, Rogers Hornsby, Tony Lazarri, Ray Schalk, Al Simmons,

group 2: Danny Macfayden, Bing Miller, Buddy Myer, Pepper Martin, Gus Mancuso, Lon Warneke, Wally Burger, Joe Sewell, John Stone, Carl Reynolds.

there are several others that are illegible or guys not as popular...Rabbit Maranille, Rabbit Waistler(?), Lister Beep, Red Worthington, and many more.

any thoughts of value??

as soon as i can scan the pages into my computer i'll post pix

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Posted By: Mark

Value depends largely upon the quality of the autographs. If there are 2 Gehrigs, and the key signatures are all in nice shape (with no visual distractions), I am guessing it's worth $10,000 - $12,000.

I don't think this piece would fetch anywhere near the $50,000 your friend is looking for. In addition, he would likely have to pay the auction house a consignment fee. It will be lots easier to assess the value, after you've posted the pictures....

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Posted By: Jodi Birkholm

Man, Lister Beep is one of my all-time faves! He always came through in double-play situations with Joe Schlabotnick!

Sorry...it's probably Lester Bell. Rabbit Warstler is the other fellow you were curious about.

Assuming that there aren't major condition issues (and that the piece is authentic), Mark's auction estimate is right on the money--the low-end of the estimate is right where it would sell at Mastro or a similar auction house if the item's winning bidder was a dealer (which is practically guaranteed).

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Posted By: David Atkatz

Hey Jodi--take a look at the estimate I posted back in December--first reply on the thread.

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Posted By: Jodi Birkholm

Touche! Sorry, I didn't bother reading the old posts.

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Posted By: anthony

these are the first 3 scans i've ever done on my new epson scanner, i dont know how to make them smaller so i hope they dont take up too much room...thanks for the educated guesses...

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Posted By: Mark Steinberg

Anthony...

Those are simply phenomenal. That is perhaps the "cleanest" little Autograph Book I have seen from that period. It is nice in that the one page is isolated to just the 3 Yankees. The page with Eddie Collins and Al Simmons together is nice as well.

This may be worth a tad more than we all speculated, but probably would still not exceed $15,000 at auction. Thanks for posting (definitely authentic, and well worth the wait!)

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Posted By: anthony

these are probably the worst pages in the book, some pencil marks and smear marks. either way, i wish it was mine...thanks for comments and guesses

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Posted By: Jodi Birkholm

The Maranville sig on the green page has been traced over, effectively killing its value.

The Carl Reynolds signature on the sheet with Eddie Collins appears to be secretarial, or in autograph lingo, "Clubhouse".

Eddie Bennett was the Yankees' pint-sized mascot. He died in the 1930's and some folks still look for his signature.

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Posted By: Mark

Those additional pages are nice, but do not add a ton of value, I'm afraid. The Rabbit Manville at the top of the one page appears to be traced over (pen on top of pencil).

Will be interesting to hear what others think. The Lester Bell sig does indeed look like Lister Beep... too funny!

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Posted By: anthony

definitely doesnt add to the value by tracing over signatures. unfortunately, my friend or actually longtime co-worker who we have a lot in common, thinks it could fetch $50k or more...i told him my initial guess was between $6-10k but he thought that was low, i'll give him everyones opinion which seems to be a fair estimate of somewhere between $10k-15k...i went through the sigs again and couldnt find walter johnson, i'm wondering if i'm missing a page, that would be nice to see. i actually have 2 of the same page, i'll see if i can get a copy.

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Posted By: Mark

Anthony... Has your friend indicated what his $50K estimate is based on? Does he have a factual basis or appraisal, or is it more wishful thinking?

The $50K would far exceed (more than triple) any similar examples that have previously hit the market.

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Posted By: anthony

he's basing it off of his own value to the whole book with "those" kinds of names...i didnt know 25% of them...but he saw a replica bat with Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig's stamped signatures for sale in Las Vegas of all places asking $10k....so the sigs if "cut" would bring close to $50k...1 ruth and 2 gehrig...$10k a piece, then the rest of the book....i explained that everything in vegas is overpriced because they are hoping you will impulse buy if you win big at craps...really wishful thinking...sorry to say

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Posted By: Mark

I see...

Unfortunately, you can't apply that kind of logic with these multi-signed pieces. What you said about the Las Vegas Strip stores is also true... grossly inflated prices, in the hope that some wealthy (but unsavvy) tourist will blow his wad on impulse. They are trying to pay some pretty high rent with those inflated prices, I'm afraid...