February Hunt Auction

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Posted By: Jaime Leiderman

Anyone plans to bid on any item?

JL


http://www.huntauctions.com

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Posted By: runscott

I looked through about half of the baseball items and all that I am familiar with were highly overpriced at starting bid (compared to what you can get similar items for on ebay). Examples - 3 Harper's tinted framed engravings starting at $500; 2 Nap Lajoie books starting high; 1915 Cubs team supplement starting at $200. Same for the old baseball equipment guides and other publications - way high.

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Posted By: Tom Boblitt

Scott......the ranges are basically 'estimates'. They do not always start out at the low end of the scales.....when I actually WENT to the auction, they had some stuff sell for well below the low end of the scale. Then again, some stuff would be bid ABOVE the end of the scale, then not sell because it didn't meet the hidden 'reserve'. So, it's basically a crapshoot.

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Posted By: David

I don't want to sound nit-picky, and I know Scott was just quoting Hunt's description, but the Harper's aren't engravings. They're wood-engravings, which is a different type of print-- both in the way they are made and in the appearance. MastroNet has on more than one occasion incorrectly used engraving in the same way, which may mean that MastroNet or Hunt's coined the usage from reading the other's catalogs.

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Posted By: runscott

I've bought a couple of these Harper's woodcuts, very nice ones for about $29 each. Mine were not hand-tinted, but I haven't heard that there's actually a premium for altered woodcuts - some people like the addition, some feel it lowers the value (to each his own). I use VCBC #14 for reference (awesome article), but unfortunately I've never seen "values" estimated for these. If anyone knows of a catalogue/price guide for vintage baseball "non-card" items like this, please let me know. Thanks

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Posted By: David

As someone who's bought and sold a number of Harper's/Leslie's baseball and non-sport woodcuts, I can tell you that there's nearly NO consistancy in pricing. This is in part because there is no price guide to reference. Sell one one day for $100, the next day it sells for $20. I think any of them for $29 is a good buy. Amongst the most expensive is probably the 1869 Cincinnati Reds (from the same picture as on the Peck and Snyder trade card)-- I thnk I sold one for $250. The 1860s Leslie's of James Creighton might sell for $500 (guess, I've never owned it).

A lot of smaller and even foreign newspapers had nice baseball woodcuts. I saw an 1880s St. Louis newspaper that had a grand woodcut of the World Champs Browns.