Ruth/Young/Cobb/Foxx/Speaker/Wagner/Hornsby/Ott Autographs
 

I need some help on a valuation of this item. It's a matted/framed piece comprised of cuts of the 8 players below. All eight autographs are certified by PSA|DNA and/or JSA.

Doing the math using the online SMR values, the autographs would be worth around $8,000. If you were to send each of them to be authenticated, that would cost close to $1,200. I know everyone has their opinions on the third party authenticators but these already have gone throughout he process.

I'm looking to sell the item and have talked to a handful of auction houses for some input. They've told me it's worth $12,000-$13,000 and obviously could go for more if the right bidders are involved. I don't want to go that route because of the heavy costs associated.

I'm interested in some additional opinions as to value. I've pasted a link below to look at some pictures.

Jimmie Foxx PSA/DNA & JSA
Tris Speaker PSA/DNA
Babe Ruth PSA/DNA
Ty Cobb JSA
Cy Young PSA/DNA
Honus Wagner PSA/DNA
Rogers Hornsby JSA
Mel Ott PSA/DNA

http://s1348.photobucket.com/user/sh...?sort=9&page=1

Heavy costs associated?????
 

Not sure what you mean by that line of "heavy costs". With most high end reputable auction houses you will make 100% of the final bid or MORE in some cases if you ship the item early.

They make their money off the buyers as they charge 20% or so on top of the winning bid to the BUYER only.

There are no inherent costs at all with a large auction house except for the shipping of the item. FYI.

Peace, Mike

Thanks Mike. A few did mention the costs of the buyers premium and a few mentioned their commission of the sale. I interpreted the commission as part of my expense.

My opinion, but I don't think you can add any premium to an item like this. To maximize profit, you would need to sell separately.

I personally feel that there is not added value in the Certs. If you send them to an auction house w/o certs, most will do it for little/no costs on such an item.

I guess I will be the negative viewpoint on this item...sorry!!!!
While the piece is beautifully framed with great display value the value of this piece is probably in the low to mid thousands as there are no rare signatures on this piece and no overly expensive ones as well and they are all "cut" signatures. Also there is no uniting theme on this piece except that they were all great players and HoFers but from different eras as well. The maximum selling price could be achieved I feel by breaking it up and selling the cuts/ signatures individually IMHO. I do not feel that an auction house would give you a 0% commission /seller's fee because this is not a truly rare or high dollar item, but I may be wrong.
I also agree with Taz that the certs on this piece do not add value to the piece.

It is a beautiful piece but I agree that you would need to find someone who happens to be looking for this particular grouping of players. That would be tough. One route you could possibly go is to find a high end auction not associated with the hobby. It could catch the eye of someone with a lot of cash outside the hobby and it could get more because it is a really beautiful piece. Inside the hobby, I agree that it would be easier to sell pieced up. Much as that pains me to say.

My guess is that, individually, the autographs are worth between $5,000-6,000.

Tom C

Some of what you said here is very relative. For instance, stating that the auto's are not 'overly expensive' means that while you have $3500 to spend on a Ruth, many people do not. To some $50 is 'expensive'.

One could put this together for $6000-$7000 in my honest opinion.

Thanks for the input guys. I'm looking to sell if anyone is interested.