Gabby Street personal book collection
 

I have 4 books that belonged to Gabby Street. All four books are autographed and inscribed by the authors to Gabby. One book is inscribed by Steamboat Johnson, two by Fred Lieb, and one by Roy Stockton. Gabby's granddaughter gave them to a friend of mine, and he in turn offered them to me. I am hoping someone can give me their opinion about authenticity and what they might be worth. Are there collectors out there who might be interested in this sort of thing?

There is a market for them. I have a few association books that were signed and inscribed to former players by the authors. Not to sure on the price my guess probably around $50 a piece. Others on here might have a better idea than me.

Association copies are treasures and much sought after by a few book collectors. The Lieb copies are very nice, but the best of the 4 is the Steamboat Johnson in dust jacket, inscribed. Very nice. Check the books to see if there are any annotations or markings that may have been made by Street, this would increase the value and interest.

Association books
 

Forgive my lack of knowledge, but what is an "association book"?

Brad

It's where the book is signed by the author to another famous person. Bruce and I like them :-). Standing the gaff is the only one that is tough at all, and since Steamboat self-published and sold the book, most copies are signed. But it's always neat to find one inscribed to someone with some fame (normally, books with an inscription to an unknown person are worth less than one simply signed by the author

Max

Thanks guys. I may sell them but have no way of knowing a fair market value. I don't mind selling at a discount as long as I know beforehand what they "should" be worth. Any advice is welcome. I also have 1946 WS Cardinals, team signed, original Ford Frick ball that was Gabbys. It is quite faded but can still see who signed it. All of the stars and common team members are on it. Musial can be seen clearly, but again quite faded. This also came from his granddaughter. With a signed letter from her stating the ball was Gabbys.

I quickly looked on a bookseller site and found four singed copies of 'Standing the Gaff'.

Without DJ - $195.00
With DJ - $225, $350 and $350.

While I love books and think these are great items I think that it should be made clear that the prices that booksellers list for baseball books has little to do with there value. Books listed in the high hundreds on book collector sites will often sell for $50 on ebay. I think Barry once commented that upon seeing the prices listed by one seller he quickly offered to sell him his collection at 1/2 of the listed prices and got no response

Personally I think that the steamboat would be in the 100 range and all of the other in the 50 dollar range-- (with out the auto they are $10 books)

Jason

I don't disagree with this assessment. In some cases the opposite is true. I find signed books on bookseller sights that I am able to sell for 4-5 times what they are asking for them. This happens to be early gold medal winning Olympians like James B. Connolly (first ever Olympic gold medalist), Eddie Eagan (only person to win gold in both winter and summer Olympics) and A.C.Gilbert (inventor of the Erector Set and pole vaulter).

Overall, I find their prices to be quite a bit unrealistic. I go for the exception rather than the rule and benefit from their lack of knowledge of the value outside of their expertise.

hope you remember this comment when it's time to sell YOUR books.