Honus Wagner Auto plus more!!!

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Posted By: Russ Bright

Hey everyone, I decided to bid on an ebay auction and ended up winning this - I put my bid in over a week ago and forgot about it...

Signed copy of ''Who's Who in the Major Leagues - Book One: The American League'' by Harold ''Speed'' Johnson. Chicago: B.E. Callahan: 1935. Hardcover octavo runs 112pp. and is boldly signed by Pie Traynor, Mace Brown, Gus Suhr, Earl Brown, Charlie Root and Honus Wagner on ''Autographs'' page. Minor wear to gilded red cloth boards and mild toning throughout, otherwise near fine condition.

so. with the Pie Traynor and Honus Wagner autos it's a great pickup, BUT I'm not sure I'll have enough money to PAY for this - so i might have to sell cards quickly - what does everyone think? value? Should I get it authenticated? Is this the type of pickup that I should KEEP?





p.s. interested parties may contact me offlist - thanks!

R

p.p.s - no longer an oops, I think I'm going to keep it - watch the B/S/T for my T206 collection to be sold!

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Posted By: leon

I understand your dilemma but do be careful about selling stuff on the main page.....This seems extraordinary though and you are one of the family.........Good luck with it....

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Posted By: barrysloate

Although I am not an autograph guy, my gut tells those are good. Great pickup!

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Posted By: S Gross

Man, that's a lot of National League autos for an American League book
Sure, Wagner, Traynor, and Root are impressive, but Gus Suhr, Glass Arm Eddie Brown, and Mace Brown*, now we're talk'n
























* gave up a famous HR, anyone ???

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Posted By: Paul S

That would have been the Home in the Gloamer...er, Gloaming -- hit just before the game was to be called on acounta darkness, as they say. Moved the Cubs into first.


Edited to say: Beautiful sigs/book!

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Posted By: davidcycleback

It looks to be a nice pickup. At quick glance, the signatures look good. As a 'random quality control test', I've had a number of Gus Suhr autographs and the Gus Suhr autograph in the book looks genuine. My theory in examining multi signed items is don't just focus on the Cobbs and Wagners, look to see if the common players look genuine. If the common signatures look good, that's often a great sign that the whole is good. This is in part because forgers spend their time practicing their Joe DiMaggio and Mickey Mantle signatures, not their Gus Suhrs and Al Osunas. There's little to no profit in marketing real Al Osuna autographs, much less forged ones. In fact, some would say the addition of an Al Osuna sharpie autograph to a $250 retro Astros jersey lowers the jersey's value.

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Posted By: peter chao

Get it authenticated to preserve the book...you can decide whether to keep or sell later. Nice find.

Peter

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Posted By: Russ Bright

Yeah, seems pretty cool, and the Fiancee didn't freak out NEARLY as much as I thought she would. I DID recently spend 3k on a ring for her, so if I spend some money on me, then I guess it's ok... lol...

What does everyone think? the more I think about it, the more excited I get! Should I get authenticated? where? how much would that cost? I heard some bad things about JSA... but there are pros and Cons to every service...

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Posted By: howard

Charlie Root also gave up a pretty famous home run.

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Posted By: Russ Bright

Charlie Root, something about a babe pointing at something... right? Most of these guys have some cool story attached to them - and for the most part i think 5 of them apr Pirates, so it seems regionally possible. who knows, I'll have it soon!

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Posted By: Russ Bright

should I have posted this in memorabilia? i would have expected more responses or speculation of when it was signed -

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Posted By: davidcycleback

I can't see the date of the book, but I assume it was signed in the 1930s. Traynor and Suhr played for the Pirates then, and that's when Charlie Root was playing. You can probably narrow it down even more by seeing when the Pirates players played together. Wagner was a Pirates coach in the 1930s-50s, so he was around to sign the book then. The ink looks consistent with the 1930s.

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Posted By: Russ Bright

it LOOKS like it says 1935 edition, which would be near the end of Traynor's career -

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Posted By: davidcyleback

If the signatures line up, the book was most probably signed during the year of the edition. A 1935 Who's Who signed in 1935. Who's Whos were sold at the stadiums and, as with a year book or program, the average fan would see no purpose in having an out of date edition at the game.

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Posted By: S Gross

Gabby Hartnett arriving home in the gloaming.....