"Pitchin' Man" in Hake's

[Rob D.]

I debated about posting about this simply because every auction has its share of head-scratching results (both on the high and low sides), and the recently concluded Hake's event is no different. That being said, this just seems so baffling that I decided it's worth soliciting opinions/theories.

In 30 years of collecting Cleveland Indians memorabilia, I've probably seen no less than 50 copies of this book in person. I don't think I've ever seen one sell for more than $25. The copy in Hake's received only two bids and ended with a selling price (including the buyer's penalty) of $379.50.

I keep rereading the description to see whether I missed a mention of it being autographed. I don't think I did.

So what am I missing?

http://www.hakes.com/item.asp?Auction=202&ItemNo=94272

[bigtrain]

While I have seen the book sell for more than $25, you should be able to pick up a half dozen of them for the price they got.

[baseballart]

I was going to comment on this one too. When Hal Liebowitz passed away (1998ish?), there were boxes of this book still in his basement. SABR was offering them (if I recall correctly) for $7.50 each.

[barrysloate]

I saw that too. Over the years I've had several copies of that book and typically sold them in the $30-35 range. There was a hoard of them found a number of years ago. It's a common book. Apparently two or more bidders weren't aware of this.

[Exhibitman]

"Knowledge is good." Emil Faber

"Ignorance is Bliss" George Orwell

[baseballart]

Rob

As Barry says, it's most likely a case of two bidders not being aware of the number of copies of this book that are in the market. When this book is placed in an auction with a number of rare Negro League items, the bidders may have incorrectly concluded that the book was rarer than Hake's estimate and description (which was not way out of line at $100-200) edited to add: not way out of line at $100, but $200 is indeed stretching it.

[barrysloate]

I agree Max that the context had something to do with it. Richard had such a sophisticated collection that it made Pitchin' Man look a little more substantial than it was.

[Jason19th]

I quess I don't know how you spend $400 for somthing without doing just a little reasearch- there are four copies of this book available for less then $85 on ABE right now and a copy just sold on this board for $30

Jason