Posted By:
Josh Evans
For the record, I bought the Cobb tin and thought it was a relative bargain at $12,000 plus the juice. There are more like ten known examples (if that) and it is the king of the baseball tobacco tins easily outpacing brethren like the Cy Young and more generic baseball advertising tins. That tin would have brought that price 10-15 years ago.
Halper had the nicest one I ever saw and got a ton for his (about 15 years ago) in a private sale. I cannot remember the price but it was $50,000-75,000. This is only the second one I have ever had. The only other one I had was a lot of years ago (more than ten) and it may have even been the same one but don’t’ quote me on that. I think it’s the back cover of one of my early auction catalogues.
Heck, the Bambino’s (also an upright tobacco tin) are selling for over $2-3,000 now (they’ve doubled over that period) and have literally dried up. Scgaynor just got a hefty price on eBay for one that wasn’t even that nice and they are at least 20 times more common than the Cobb. And the Cobb blows that away in terms of graphics, it is earlier, has a real player rather than being a silhouetted knockoff, and is wonderfully “card related” whether the card came inside or not (I don’t know the answer to that question). Even the “Yankee Boy” tins have dried up and I see them priced up to $1,000 now. They used to be as common as dirt and were selling for $300 when the Cobb’s in this condition sold for $15,000. There would be at least three or four at every Brimfield in the “good old days.”
Interesting that the bidding/competition came from the internet for this one. This might say that there was more competition from the advertising/tin collectors who are a lot more advanced about this area than we are (it’s all they do). And this in a sale where very little of the bidding (I was surprised about that) came from the internet as opposed to the room.