Rabbit Maranville

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Posted By: Carrie

I have a scrapbook that was left to me over 20 years ago by my grandmother; in going through it recently, I was interested in the baseball stuff I found in it from my gr grandfather, Carl Linberg, who was a business manager for the Springfield Nationals BBC in the early 40s. I have 12 handwritten letters from Maranville to Carl, and a lot of copies of his responses, and some photos. etc. I've found it so interesting and would love some help id'ing who is in some of the pix, etc. A million thanks to fkw who led me to this site and helped me post these. I have scanned more of the collection onto:

http://www.footnote.com/page/2244/carl-linbergs-scrapbook

These are some of the things:
Note: contract is not signed, just some sort of copy

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Posted By: Jodi Birkholm

Man, I would love just one of those Rabbit letters. Keep it all intact, though, unless you intend to sell.

Thanks for sharing!

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Posted By: fkw

Hi, I spent the last couple night looking over the letters and helped Carrie with the scans a bit and gave her a little of an idea of how much a Maranville signature goes for.

Its very interesting stuff. From what I have found out Maranville was the Manager of the Springfield team in 1941. After reading the letters it seemed he was having some financial difficulties and was needing a loan.

As most of you know Im more of an expert with PreWar cards, and I know many of you know way more about these types of items than I do, so I pointed her to this site.

I had some questions myself to add...

1. If she was going to sell, should she break up the lot individually or sell the related letters/contract as one lot?

2. Is this something that may be good for Mastro's/REA etc. or better on eBay or a smaller auction house?

3. What type of estimate would you put on an individual letter or the pink contract? What about the whole lot?

4. Who is pictured with Ruth and Gehrig?

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Posted By: Mark Steinberg

I believe that agent, Christy Walsh is to the left of Gehrig. I should know the other two, but am brain-dead tonight. I am sure that others will chime in before too long with the answers...

Regarding how to sell... I think it would realize more $$ if it was broken up and sold individually. This, however, requires lots more work, time and effort. If this grouping were mine (and there really are 12 separate letters signed by Maranville) I would consign half of it to a large auction (Mastro, Lelands or Hunt), and sell-off some of the other pieces individually.

This way, you get the big exposure and can also "hedge your bets", while not having to wait as long to be paid...

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Posted By: Dan Bretta

Definitely Christy Walsh on the left and is that not Rabbit Maranville in between Gehrig and Ruth? Not sure who is on the right, but if I get some time I'll try and figure it out.

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Posted By: Jodi Birkholm

Although I like Mastro, they would likely lump all the items together in one lot, thereby minimizing your profit. As long as you're not looking for immediate financial gain, I would suggest consigning these items to one of the larger auction houses mentioned above with the stipulation that the signed items be sold individually (Mastro would work). Unsigned memorabilia is not my area of expertise, so I will leave that matter to be answered my someone with more knowledge in the field. To add further credence to my feelings in this matter, I don't know of anyone who specializes in Maranville memorabilia. Yes, he is a HOFer, but he's not popularly collected in the way that stars such as Ruth, Cobb, Clemente, etc. are. That being said, the likelihood of two die-hard Maranville enthusiasts fighting to the death in a bidding war over the entire collection is highly doubtful. There are folks out there who really enjoy collecting signed handwritten letters from HOFers, however, and would probably only want one example of Maranville. Break the lot up.

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Posted By: Dan Bretta

Hall of fame collectors will compete for this if they don't have a Maranville autograph and the fact that it's on his own stationary IMO makes it much more desirable than a cut signature. You will also get some interest from minor league collectors interested in Eastern League or Springfield items.

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Posted By: Mark Steinberg

To Jodi's point, I do not own a Maranville autograph, and would LOVE to buy one of the letters. I would make you an offer right here and now, if it did not violate forum policy.

Like most collectors, I would only want/need one, so I agree that you will maximize profits by breaking this up. You always realize less $$ overall, when these things are sold as a large group. Often, dealers will purchase the group, and break it up themselves. That alone should tell you that selling individually is the way to go.

Hope this helps...

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Posted By: davidcycleback

Carrie, nice items and thanks for posting. Irrelevant to auction value discussions, they are nice to look at.

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Posted By: Mike McKee

The guy on the right side looks like Lefty O'Doul.

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Posted By: ErlandStevens

I think letters on team stationery are fantastic. On ebay it is easy to saturate the market. My guess is that the first letter might fetch $35-40 tops. Subsequent letters will drop pretty quickly. For example, one seller on ebay has a load of Ruppert estate material from the 1910/1920 period. Team letters started in the $60+ range but dropped to $30 (and lower) as more kept coming up for sale. Without being a signed/executed copy, the contract would maybe be in the $100 neighborhood (but I have way less experience in those). Unexecuted copies of contracts are not uncommon, but this is a HOFer.

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Posted By: Carrie

Thanks for all the input. I have no idea what I want/am going to do with everything; it's been sitting in a plastic bag for over 20 years following me through life. If anyone has a chance, I'd love to know who it is in the photo with the smiling guy sitting down (at a stadium?) posted on: http://www.footnote.com/page/2244/carl-linbergs-scrapbook
I'd post it here, but am unsure how.

No matter what I do, I do find it interesting reading the whole lot. How should I keep this stuff so it preserves better?

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Posted By: fkw

Here the photo Carrie,

Does anyone know who these guys might be???

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Posted By: Keyway

I have a nice piece from rabbit that I bought from his nephew many years ago. A 1935 Sportswriters award. If you are going to sell these letters seperatly I would be very interested in purchasing one. Please keep me in mind. Frank