The DuMouchelles sale

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Posted By: barrysloate

There were many interesting aspects of the DuMouchelles sale, and it has become part of hobby folklore. First, when the owner of the collection died, the family was left to sell it, and it seemed apparent they knew nothing about it at all. Just their choice of auction house was odd, because DuMouchelles specializes in gaudy furniture and miscellaneous household knickknacks. And it is clear by the catalog that they knew nothing about the material either. There were no lot descriptions whatsoever, and an estimate could be ten times the value or 1/20 of the value. They were clueless.

And there was more than just books. There was an incredible 1858 display scorecard between the Tri-Mountain BBC and Portland, plus autographed pieces, and various other memorabilia. The cover had a picture of a T206 Wagner that was a blatant fake and the auction house had no idea. There were also quite a few books signed by Henry Chadwick, so clearly the original owner bought part of his library.

The sale was poorly publicized and people only knew about it by word of mouth. But in the end all the big players were there. Mark Rucker and I bought together, and he travelled to Detroit and did the bidding. That was actually the time when I was just getting serious about baseball books, so I didn't necessarily bid on the right ones. I don't even remember what I bought, but I did pretty well. And there weren't a ton of bargains. Most lots reached reasonable levels despite the poor quality catalog.

And to this day we still have no idea who the original owner was. But the depth and quality of the books has never even been approached since.