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Posted By: Paul Muchinsky

Mike,

The Clemente pin is rare. It is a single-day event pin, and it wasn't even held in Pittsburgh. One can only image how many got tossed away after the game. I'm not real current on the prices of the player bubble tabs. Because they are easily scratched as lithographs, their price is more condition-sensitive than a more durable celluloid pin. Perhaps different players bring more money than others (I don't know), but when I have seen them auctioned, they go around $75 - $100.

I am not aware of another Red Sox pin. However, as I said in my book, a unique pin (only one made) is a prototype, issued by the pinmaker, to show to the customer as a sample of what the final product would look like. Very few prototypes were ever saved by the pinmaker. So the best bet is that Red Sox pin is not a prototype. Given its large diameter, it is unlikely it could be easily lost or misplaced. Thus I would imagine there are others "out there"--perhaps in an old trunk in someone's attic. I once saw an episode of the Antiques Roadshow where someone brought in rarely or never before seen movie posters from the 1930s. They were virtually mint, probably over 100 different ones. Where did they come from? A young couple bought a fixer-upper home. Long ago it was next door to a theatre. The theatre was long gone. Upon ripping out old walls, they discovered these posters between the studs of the house. The manager of the movie theatre used to live in the house, and the posters were used as insulation. It was a common practice of the day for a theatre manager to forward all the posters of the film along with the film to the next movie house to show the film. Apparently the manager saved one copy of each poster to help insulate his house. When the movie completed its run of theatres, the company that made the movie destroyed the posters. They were now functionally useless, promoting a film that was no longer shown--sort of "yesterday's news". I have to believe that somewhere there is a stash of "put-away" pins that someone forgot about. By the way, the pins need not be all sports related, but also advertising. This Red Sox pin is a "cross-over"---using athletes to advertise a product. Finding such a stash is every pin collectors dream.

I got one of my rarest pins from a "dumpster diver". These guys sniff out old houses that are being gutted. The company places a dumpster beneath a 2nd or 3rd story window, and fills the dumpster. The dumpster-diver roots through the dumpster after the crew goes home for the night. This dumpster diver was a bottle collector---could care less about sports. He climbs into the dumpster at dusk, and sees a pin with an attached RWB ribbon. It is embedded in the coil springs of an old rusty mattress. As he places his hand into the spring to fetch the pin, his hand causes the spring to widen, and the pin keeps falling farther through the spring, heading beyond recovery toward the bottom of the dumpster. Just before giving up, he makes one last surge, and succeeds in barely griping the ribbon between the tips of his fingers, and gently pulls out the entire pin. Nearly in mint condition, I have no idea how it survived the fall down 2 or 3 stories. In short, the pins are out there. Baseball has been our national sport for over 100 years. Pins are far more durable than paper items. I believe some rare gems are waiting to be found from original souvenirs saved long ago.

Paul