Christy Mathewson Personal Collection Going to Auction
 

126 lots going through Hunt Auctions

Good luck!

https://www.cllct.com/sports-collect...public-auction

The mind boggles! What's the over/under on the Horner photo? The Army uni?

Wow, that Horner.

Auction estimate, 50k-100k. Whom can I write the check to? Off the cuff guess, it goes for mulilples of that estimate. That is one of the most gorgeous photos I have ever seen.

That is as about as stunningly sharp that a black and white photo can be.

Brian

I love B&W.

I have an old scrapbook with that photograph (not nearly as nice as that, probably from some publication!) in it, and whoever made the scrapbook wrote in this John Kieran quote: "Mathewson was the best pitcher I ever saw. He was the best anyone ever saw. Let them name all the others. I don't care. Mathewson was better." I think that is the best photo ever made of him.

Just WOW!!!!!! :eek::eek::eek:

Can one of you guys contact Hunt Auctions and make sure they did not send 50 of those lots to a Best Western in the middle of nowhere?

Joking aside, amazing auction that I happened to stumble upon earlier this AM.

The carl horner type 1 portrait is simply profound
 

The Carl Horner portrait of Matty is profound----just makes you stop, and stare in amazement. The fact it belonged to Christy so long ago..... Takes me back to when I was a lad of 10, in 1964, and reading whatever I could find on the great Big 6. Card-wise, all I had was his beautiful Golden Press HOF. In time, bought a nice T206 black cap, but sold it in the mid-80s to help raise money for a good project. I miss that card.

I trust whoever wins this precious portrait of the great Mathewson will cherish it very strongly!

Really, in this instance, I feel this Type 1 portrait is better than any Christy Mathewson card. --- Brian Powell

It's so crystal clear that you can easily see the little moth bites on his jersey. :eek:

I would give my left testicle for the Mathewson Army jacket

that army uniform--wow is right. Incredible.

The items up for auction are amazing. To see them available now, after so many years, is very moving.

After reviewing the Matty items...

http://i2.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/...40/962/d91.gif

I was just looking through the lots and drooling!!

Incredible pieces through and through. I could only dream of owning some of them. Maybe in another life!

Beautiful and appropriate, given the most astonishing bonehead move ever. Hope is the AH is listening,

Can someone share the story?

So
What does everyone think about the results?
Very annoying to hold the auction on a workday
Was super busy at work and it was difficult to keep track of the lots

I've never bid at a live Hunt Auction before, but when I tried to log in, to Invaluable, I was unable to. Wasn't going to be a big player in the auction, but would have liked to have grabbed a photo or two.

Same

Have to say I thought many of the prices were lighter than I expected. Probably because I found the stuff so damm amazing.

Watched 90% of the auction. Didn't pull the trigger on anything and kicking myself.

I was watching 5 photos and all but 1 went at or higher than the pre-auction estimate. The one exception was the Norfolk Phenoms team photo from c1900 which went for just under $10k.

Finally got my Matty! My first T206 card purchased in 1997 was a Matty. And my latest T206 subject autograph is now… finally… a Matty.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...08307af7_b.jpg

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...8dd3d77f_b.jpg

Congrats Paul! A Matty auto is something special!

That might be the coolest Christmas card I have ever seen. Congrats Paul!

I picked up this Matty photo with Christy Jr. imitating his dad’s pitching motion. I missed out on a few others because I was running around my office while the auction was taking place.

Mathewson Auction
 

I was pretty excited to land the two items I was after.

The fan letter asking to teach the "fade away" and a 1904 Scored Program which was his 30th win of 1904.

Got some much needed info on this which an AH had wrong

Love to see the pickups. I was at work and totally forgot about this auction.

124k for the Matty Horner. I thought it would go for more but I'm not writing the check.
.

Trimmed mount hurt it a bit I think.

It exceeded expectations

Just a bit of a weird side note, but it jumped out at me. :eek::D:eek:

Whoever (or is it Whomever?) was responsible for churning out all of the promotional propaganda for that piece was really having trouble with his/her 'it-work.'

• They forgot to include the word "it" when writing “making appear” instead of “making it appear”.

• They errantly added a possessive apostrophe to the word its to make it wrongly read its' at least twice in the write-up.


We now return you to your regularly scheduled thread...

AI write ups. . . . .coming to a catalog soon.

AI write ups going to every single place you read anything, coming soon.
.

It will be similar to the 1970s and 80s, when everything you bought was made in Japan, and the booklets and other printing had those funny little grammatical quirks. That prepped us for the following decades when everything was made in China, with entire sentences unintelligible or drop-dead hilarious. But hey, the stuff they made was good and cheap, so who cared?

So true, Hank!

It will likely have a style, but I don't expect grammatical quirks. AI has a lot of quirks and unknowns, but it is very good at copy.

If AI can get a handle on the American language, I'll be impressed!

It already does. You can ask it to write in a particular style and it is shocking how well it nails it. You can pick a subset of the population and prompt it to "Write XXX in the style of YYY."

I've seen examples from cultures that use a blend of English and other languages and it does an incredible job.

Here's a cute one I just ran:


Here’s a summary of the first book in the "Harry Potter" series, "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone," from the perspective of an MIT physicist with a Boston accent who has spent his entire life communicating only with other physicists:

Alright, so here’s the scoop on "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone." It’s a wicked good tale, startin’ with this kid, Harry Potter. He’s livin’ with these muggles, the Dursleys, who treat him worse than a busted-up old piece of lab equipment.

One day, Harry gets this letter delivered by an owl – that’s right, an owl! Now, that’s a real head-scratcher for anyone who knows a thing or two about the fundamentals of mail delivery systems. Turns out, it’s from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Think of it like gettin’ an acceptance letter from MIT, but for magic.

Harry heads off to Hogwarts, and the first thing that happens is he gets sorted into Gryffindor – kinda like joinin’ a top-tier research group at the MIT Physics Department. He makes fast friends with Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, and they form a team that’s tighter than the crew workin’ on the MIT Fusion Reactor.

Now, the crux of the story revolves around the Philosopher's Stone. This thing is the equivalent of a room-temperature superconductor – it’s got the power to turn base metals into gold and grant immortality. Naturally, it’s kept under heavy guard at Hogwarts. But there’s this dark wizard, Voldemort – imagine him like a rogue AI program, officially out of commission but still causin’ trouble.

Harry and his buddies, Ron and Hermione, use their noggins to get past a series of protective enchantments – kinda like crackin’ the security code on the MIT AI lab. They encounter challenges that test their knowledge and wit, each barrier akin to solvable complex physical problems, from logic puzzles to real-life Quidditch – think of it as the magical equivalent of hackin’ the Charles River Labyrinthine.

The climax hits when Harry confronts Voldemort. Thanks to his unique scar, which acts like a magical Faraday cage, Harry’s able to thwart Voldemort’s attempts to nab the stone. It’s a showdown that’d make even the fiercest rivalry at the MIT Mystery Hunt look like child’s play.

In the end, Hogwarts is safe, and Harry’s set for more adventures, much like a young physicist who’s just completed their first groundbreaking research project at MIT. It’s a wild ride, full of twists and turns, and a real testament to the power of friendship, bravery, and a bit of magical know-how.

So, that’s the lowdown. A young wizard discovers his legacy, battles dark forces, and sets the stage for future escapades – all with a blend of charm and scientific curiosity that any MIT physicist would appreciate.

It already does. You can ask it to write in a particular style and it is shocking how well it nails it. You can pick a subset of the population and prompt it to "Write XXX in the style of YYY."

I've seen examples from cultures that use a blend of English and other languages and it does an incredible job.

Here's a cute one I just ran:


Here’s a summary of the first book in the "Harry Potter" series, "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone," from the perspective of an MIT physicist with a Boston accent who has spent his entire life communicating only with other physicists:

Alright, so here’s the scoop on "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone." It’s a wicked good tale, startin’ with this kid, Harry Potter. He’s livin’ with these muggles, the Dursleys, who treat him worse than a busted-up old piece of lab equipment.

One day, Harry gets this letter delivered by an owl – that’s right, an owl! Now, that’s a real head-scratcher for anyone who knows a thing or two about the fundamentals of mail delivery systems. Turns out, it’s from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Think of it like gettin’ an acceptance letter from MIT, but for magic.

Harry heads off to Hogwarts, and the first thing that happens is he gets sorted into Gryffindor – kinda like joinin’ a top-tier research group at the MIT Physics Department. He makes fast friends with Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, and they form a team that’s tighter than the crew workin’ on the MIT Fusion Reactor.

Now, the crux of the story revolves around the Philosopher's Stone. This thing is the equivalent of a room-temperature superconductor – it’s got the power to turn base metals into gold and grant immortality. Naturally, it’s kept under heavy guard at Hogwarts. But there’s this dark wizard, Voldemort – imagine him like a rogue AI program, officially out of commission but still causin’ trouble.

Harry and his buddies, Ron and Hermione, use their noggins to get past a series of protective enchantments – kinda like crackin’ the security code on the MIT AI lab. They encounter challenges that test their knowledge and wit, each barrier akin to solvable complex physical problems, from logic puzzles to real-life Quidditch – think of it as the magical equivalent of hackin’ the Charles River Labyrinthine.

The climax hits when Harry confronts Voldemort. Thanks to his unique scar, which acts like a magical Faraday cage, Harry’s able to thwart Voldemort’s attempts to nab the stone. It’s a showdown that’d make even the fiercest rivalry at the MIT Mystery Hunt look like child’s play.

In the end, Hogwarts is safe, and Harry’s set for more adventures, much like a young physicist who’s just completed their first groundbreaking research project at MIT. It’s a wild ride, full of twists and turns, and a real testament to the power of friendship, bravery, and a bit of magical know-how.

So, that’s the lowdown. A young wizard discovers his legacy, battles dark forces, and sets the stage for future escapades – all with a blend of charm and scientific curiosity that any MIT physicist would appreciate.

That's kind of scary..

That's kind of scary..

And even though trimmed, I am still surprised the Horner Cabinet didn't bring more. What an image.

Would love to see auction write ups in the style of either Hunter Thompson or Thomas Pynchon.

We were somewhere on the edge of Tolstoi when the Wagz began to take hold.