As to the OP question, I don't typically follow pricing trends, but my initial gut feel is Jackie better value long term due to his place in American History, but then like the OP .....a few seconds later I think " I don't know about that"
*I think* Willie's cards are hanging in there above Jackie's now days despite his current apparent surly nature.
Personally, I've been a Mays-the-baseball-player fan since I started collecting and reading up on baseball history back in second grade. He does have an iconic well-known, magical moment in baseball ("The Catch"), He's part of a song that will likely last among baseball history clips (Willie, Mickey, and the Duke), he had a cool, friendly nick-name, I'm probably wrong on this one, but my perception all these years has been he was one of the first to combine big HR & big SB numbers and generally speaking he has good looking cards and photos. (61 topps not withstanding).
It's unfortunate to read how miserable he has become, and believe me if I had a similar encounter, my opinion of his cards would probably plummet as well.
But it's probably likely that it's a small percentage of collectors that know of his public-manner in retirement. I've read pretty often how the net54 community is a small percent of the actual collecting community, even though it seems like the entire collecting universe to me. Probably the same for autograph seekers.
I suspect it's possible that future collectors may hear of his rudeness at signings and attribute it to "grumpy old man" syndrome.
On the other hand, I always liked DiMaggio-the-player but read that Robert Cramer book about 5 years ago and came away with a distaste for him as a person. Still like his cards and images though.
I'm curious if there are books written about Mays that depict him as unlikeable off the field? or did anyone here have encounters with him in his playing days? Was he a jerk in his 20's ,30's and 40's?
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