Sotherby's Lou Gehrig Day - 1999 - Barry Halper

[Snapolit1]

Unfortunately this event was long before my collecting days started. Sounds prety amazing. Lou's last glove - $50,000 estimate!! And a cool card too.

Does anyone have memories of this sale? 2,500 lots to be sold in person; 6,500 lots to be sold on the internet.


https://www.ebay.com/itm/285165559422

[rjackson44]

yeah a lot of folks bought fake stuff

[Snapolit1]

Wow! I wasn't expecting things to go in that direction . . . .

[rjackson44]

Here ya go

[Fred]

Steve,

Look in fleabay and search "Halper". You can find the catalogs for sale. It's much more fun to look at hard copies than to pick through web pages. The catalogs are pretty nice.

Ok, in a collection this size, there's bound to be stuff that may not be what we want (complete authentic with provenance) but a majority of the stuff in the catalog was legit.

It was really amazing to see one person with SO MUCH STUFF! I'm guessing if the auction were 20 years later, the prices realized would be much more.

[G1911]

A lot of it was fake. Including items he said he personally acquired. Some of the items that weren’t provably fake turned out to be stolen from the libraries and archives. From jerseys to autographs to hair to ball player firearms to knickerbocker baseballs, a whole lot of his collection has turned out to be phony or not what it was purported to be. He even lied about playing for Jimmie Foxx in the 50’s. Between the fakes, the stolen items and Halper’s frequent falsehoods, it’s hard to take items from his collection as a positive provenance.

[roarfrom34]

Originally Posted by Snapolit1

Unfortunately this event was long before my collecting days started. Sounds prety amazing. Lou's last glove - $50,000 estimate!! And a cool card too.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/285165559422

Didn't the late actress/director Penny Marshall win this glove? I believe this was later to be proven as fraudulent as well.

[hcv123]

I remember the auction well. Also still have my catalogs. Went down to view stuff in person. I won 1 lot - an incredible Pete Rose card collection. I think a number of the very high profile items (Mantle glove (won by Billy Crystal), J Jackson uniform, etc) were proven to be other than what they were supposed to be, so while the quantity of questionable/fraudulent items may have been small relative to the quantity offered, the quality of those items I believe, cast a shadow on the collection and Halper as a whole.
The scope was incredible.
Ironically I've had the "baseball card" promotional set (15) sitting on my desk for a week now as I prep it for sale.

[steve B]

AS I recall, there as a huge amount of lesser stuff.
I remember a tv segment on him, and he had a conveyor system like in a dry cleaners to store all the unifoms.

[Keith H. Thompson]

to learn of Barry Halper's well documented transgressions. I knew him personally, have traded with him, and won several 19th century Detroit items at his auction. The overall depth and quality of his collection has had few equals, but his fraudulent attempts to enhance his collection is surpassed every day by TPAs, card doctors, and "opinion experts" of every description ... But like Barry's collection, not everything was enhanced or fake, and today some genuine "stuff" still gets through? I hope.

[bigfanNY]

Before the Auction the Hall of Fame went through the Collection and purchased a sizable portion. Including many significant Ruth and Gehrig items.
Collecting before internet and guides forced anyone involved to learn as they went. And Barry Halper like anyone had to make split second decisions based on background provided by complete strangers.
Very difficult to get it right every time. Looking at his collection as a whole he got it right alot.

[roarfrom34]

Originally Posted by bigfanNY

Before the Auction the Hall of Fame went through the Collection and purchased a sizable portion. Including many significant Ruth and Gehrig items.

Actually MLB purchased those items & donated them to the HOF (the HOF doesn't purchase artifacts). For awhile there was a room dedicated at the Hall with a lot of this memorabilia on display.

Once it was discovered that the majority of these items were fraudulent, they were removed. One item in particular I remember was a supposed Joe Jackson game used jersey.

[Bigdaddy]

The first time I heard his name was from an an interview with him and info on his collection - Sports Illustrated I think, but I could be wrong. He was also part owner of the Yankees if I remember correctly.

Fraud is not a new thing in this hobby and seems to show up wherever there is money to be made. Barry had a big checkbook and I'm sure word got around that he was a buyer for high-profile items, bringing both legitimate and fraudulent items to his attention.

Still an amazing collection for one person to put together, but the shine is not quite so bright now that the truth has come out. And I agree with a lot of what Bob C said above about today's collections and what we really know about them.