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Posted By: Ryan Christoff

Fred,

Yes, I do know the last transaction price on the Pete Hill card. I won't give you the exact number, but I can tell you it was substantial, even though it was many times less than the minimum bid in the auction.

I can tell you this much, the current owner paid WAY more than ANYONE else on the planet would have at the time. In fact, if I was auctioning the card back then and started it at the price he paid for it, this exact thread would probably have taken place, just with different numbers. Actually, people would be more outraged at the price because back then there was never any talk about the realistic possibility of Pete Hill making the Hall of Fame. I've always thought Hill should be in, and the current owner felt stronger than me, but that's not why he bought the card. He bought it because he's a collector and that's the price he had to pay to get the card, regardless of what the "fair market value" was at the time. Had he sold it on ebay shortly thereafter he would have gotten a fraction of what he paid for it. I probably would have wound up as the high bidder for less than half what he paid for it, maybe a lot less.

I don't see this as being any different than when you go back and read hobby publications from 30 or 40 years ago and you can't believe people were complaining about having to pay $10 for a T206 Cobb. The current owner of the Pete Hill paid a "crazy" price to get it. I guess it wasn't so crazy after all, just ahead of its time.


Rhys,

Esteban Prats was indeed a great ballplayer. So was his brother Miguel. I don't believe either are worthy of being considered legitimate HOF candidates, but something I will never be able to explain is the fact that neither of them are even members of the HOF in their own country!!! Esteban played from 1889 to 1910 and Miguel played from 1888 to 1909. Part of the problem might be that there are no stats for the greater portions of their careers, but they still should both have been no-brainers for the Cuban HOF. Both of them were definite stars and among the top few players of the era. I really like that team photo from Matty McIntyre's collection that you won when it was on ebay. They didn't mention Esteban Prats, but he's an easy one to identify. Do you still have it?

Okay guys, you can continue discussing Hal and the Wagner. Sorry for hijacking the thread and talking about something other than Hal's defense of his non-shill bidding and the greatness of the Reccius Wagner. Back to the regularly scheduled programming.

-Ryan