1860's Harry Wrights
 

I am wondering why the huge disparity in prices between the Legendary CDV with Harry & Sam Wright pictured which recently sold for just under $9K and this one which will be coming up in REA with a minimum bid of $50K:

http://www.robertedwardauctions.com/...preview/3.html

I understand that they are different items, CDV vs. game ticket, but to me, I would think that the value would be much closer. Does the approximately two year difference in making one possibly the earliest baseball card make that much of a difference in value?

It's all in the selling and makes absolutely no sense.

You're right, Gary, that's my thought exactly.

I have always been of the belief that "significant" historical baseball collectibles whose value typically falls in the $5,000 range to $50,000 range (these numbers are approximate, of course) will bring much higher sale prices at auction if the auction house starts the minimum bid at a significantly higher level. Of course, the starting bid has to be commensurate with the expected value of the item. The auction houses will insist that it is not the case and they will preach that the bidders will decide the final value of an item.

Once you approach the $100K mark and above, which very few items ever do, like a T206 Wagner, Baltimore News Ruth, etc., then I agree that the starting bid is not important and the bidders will decide the final price.

The Sam and Harry Wright CdV in REA has a $10,000 minimum I believe. Also, it is a Grand Match ticket which can be dated to a particular time, not a random CdV that could be from a later time.

Actually, the reserve is $50K not the minimum bid, same difference though as the item will not sell at all until the reserve is met. Might as well just call it a minimum bid.

I'm not a big fan of covering all of the possibilities when dating pre-war items, like saying that something could have been issued later than the subject matter that was photographed. If you look at things that way, you can question most anything that does not have some type of advertising or postmark date to back it up.

Jay-Images used on CdVs can also be from an earlier time. I'm sure there are CdVs with images taken earlier than the mount would suggest. Photographers retained negatives for future demand. Possibly, the earliest CdVs created with the negative are lost to the ages. Thus, the CdV may be identified to a date range by the mount, which gives us the approximate year of issue, but the actual image is from an earlier period than assumed. I'm not talking decades here, but a few years is significant both historically and with regard to value.

If you believe the Hoboken is older, which it very well may be, that makes a difference baseball card wise when you're talking about firsts. I think that the Hoboken is dated is a major part of it. Other items require speculation.

I thought the Sam/Harry CDV was special, so if someone says it should be priced higher, I won't argue.

Phil--what are you talking about? The reserve on the Harry Wright by himself is $50,000. According to Rob, the reserve on the Sam and Harry ticket is $10,000 (it is not shown in the preview).

Jay:

I did not even know that there was a Sam & Harry Wright item in REA. I was referring to the one that just sold in Legendary last time as I mentioned in my post. The link in my original post here refers to REA's Harry Wright only item.

Phil,

Do you think the fact that one is a single portrait of Wright, as opposed to one of Wright and his dad, may account for part of the difference? I know that personally, I would pay much more for a card of Wright by himself than for a photo of Wright with his dad. Perhaps that's just me, but I suspect that some other people might feel the same way I do.

My opinion is they're both nice items. The Hoboken is more documentably baseball than the other. The other (Mathew Brady CDV of Sam and Harry) was ambiguous.

I wouldn't label either as a baseball card, though the Hoboken ticket is getting very close. If the tickets were designed to be kept as a mementos, then I'd say its very very close. And putting a photo of the players on front, sure makes the appear to be be designed as collectables. So I can understand if someone calls the Hoboken a baseball card, even if I call it a ticket.

Agreed, Kenny, I think that is part of it.

Let's see what the REA Sam & Harry does with the $10K reserve/minimum bid as opposed to the Sam & Harry from the last Legendary auction with the much lower minimum bid. Obviously, the first bid in REA will top the Legendary final sale price. I'm not usually a betting man but will go out on a limb and say that the REA item will get at least one bid, 99.99% chance that there will be more than one bid.........

I believe that in REA the reserve and the minimum bid are the same. In other words, one cannot bid 30k on that card. The first bidder must bid 50k.
JimB