Vintage Equipment and Memorabilia Collection

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Posted By: Joe K.

Hello. Most of you don't know me but I have corresponded with some of you recently and in the past. Although I am not a serious card collector, I have always found the members of this forum and their contributions to be very helpful as it relates to my memorabilia collecting. I have been collecting vintage sports equipment and memorabilia from all sports, but mostly baseball, for the past 7 years. I collect equipment, ephemera, buttons, pennants, games.....just about anything and everything vintage. I have an extensive collection of baseball gloves and bats, and my current focus is vintage baseball uniforms. I do not usually collect many cards (except I have amassed a pretty sizeable commons ungraded collection that I use for display), and I tend to steer away from autographs and game used equipment. (mostly due to limited financial resources).

I try to share pictures and information with as many collectors as I can. I have been swapping pictures, but I just decided to take advantage of one of the free web site services and create my own site that I can direct people to to view the collection. I thought I would share it with those of you who would be interested.

http://www.geocities.com/vintagesportscollector/

BTW - Like I said the site was free so if you get a "Data Transfer Exceeded" error when trying to view. Give it about an hour to reset and try back later.

If you would like to share pictures of some of your more interesting displays, of course I would love to see them.

Thanks!
Joe

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Posted By: Anonymous

Love the sight!!! You and I have exactly the same interests and collecting habits. I am in emailing you photos today. Thanks for the post and lets keep in touch.

Mike Hoevet

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Posted By: Joe K.

Thanks Mike. I got your pictures. I see we do share many common areas of interest. One thing that caught my eye (among many things) was the trophy filled with old baseballs...very clever. Your office/memorabilia room is very impressive. It gave me some good ideas. Lets keep in touch. I have a few questions for you so I will send you an email and we can share some thoughts.

Joe

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Posted By: Scott

Good to see you posting here. I have taken a small break from uniforms as I try to get my overall vintage baseball collection "under control" for 2005. I'm still working on a non-card/non-photo web-site but it won't have near the amount of stuff yours has...maybe with time!

By the way, I sent the Duquesne uni to the dry-cleaners and it came back a bit nicer, but they aren't able to do much more than press it - it still smells old. Maybe we can form an equipment web-ring?

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Posted By: Aaron

Joe:

Great looking site and great job of displaying your collection. Like you, I am a collector of various baseball memoribilia (jerseys, caps, programs, pins, pennants, etc.), but only buy cards for display. I have my own home office/den (which I possessively refer to as "the Aaron room") where my vintage sports memorabilia is on display, but my wife would never allow me to display so much "clutter" (her words--mine would be "horde of treasures").

Mike:

I'd love to take a look at your memorabilia room (or anyone else that has photos they are willing to share). Feel free to e-mail me!

--Aaron

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Posted By: Mike

Aaron,

Your email is on the the way.

Mike

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Posted By: Joe K.

Hi Scott- I like the idea of the equipment network. I am gathering names of those who have a similar equipment interest and I am thinking of how we can keep in touch. I'll let you know. Thanks.

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Posted By: Joe K.

Hi Aaron. I would love to see "The Aaron Room" if you have any pictures to email. Send them along if you can. You hit the nail on the head RE clutter. My wife is constantly complaining about it. She likes the room a lot but always suggest I display it in some more organized fashion. I showed her Mike Hoevet's room pictures and she said "See...how come your room can't be more like that...see how nicely he displays his gloves and bats...just like I have been telling you..blah blah blah" (Thanks a lot Mike!! ).

Anyay I think she is right to some extent. We are starting a house renovation soon which will force me to pack up all the room for a while. When it returns I have some ideas of how I would like to display it in a more "organized clutter" way. I am going to keep the "natural clutter" feel but will group the sports more.

Thanks!
Joe

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Posted By: Anonymous

wow...sweet collection. I have a hillerich & sons round knob bat circa 1897-1904 or so just like the one that sold on ebay a few weeks back but mines nicer. Anyway...I've never seen round knob bats like yours. Are they baseball bats? If so from what year? Very nice!

Pete in MN

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Posted By: Joe K.

Hi Pete- I think you may be referring to the Indian Clubs that are in (the top half at least) in one of the pictures. Those aren't bats. Those are Spalding Indian Clubs c. 1910 (early form of exercise equipment). Some of my more notable bats are:

(all circa)
- 1905 Spalding Wagon Tongue
- 1910 Reach Burley
- 1890s "Standard" - Big Bat 36in, thick handle
- Late 19th century home made bat- enormous 38 in bat

Your JF Hillerich sounds like a great bat. I would like to get a pre-1911 JF Hillerich bat.

-Joe

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Posted By: Mike

Hey Joe, keep momma happy and ship all your clutter to my house ok? Like you, when I started accumulating "stuff" it simply filled gaps in the room until the gaps were gone. When we moved six years ago, I sold about 70 gloves and bats, upgraded, got rid of the non vintage, and started organizing the look I wanted. I'm at a point now where I sell or trade items if I don't plan to display them. I don't see a problem at all with mixing sports. I love the back of the old sporting goods store look because you have to look closely and there are always surprises. The changes in color, shape, and texture are great. I am also fortunate to be an amateur woodworker, so I can make my own bat racks, glove holders, etc. I have crates of stuff in the basement I've accumulated and it's fun to dig through them and swap out items in my office with others. I am planning to add more items from storage and new purchases and tighten up the spacing a bit. Here are some cool sites to check out:

http://www.rickybulldog.com/
http://hometown.aol.com/glovecrazy/
http://www.nodderexchange.com/
http://www.sportsartifacts.com/
http://www.vintageball.com/
http://www.sportsantiques101.com/

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Posted By: Joe K.

Thanks Mike. I have seen all these sites, except SportAntiques101. This site I am really interested to see when it is fully developed. It really focuses on the area of sports display antiques for which there just isn't much out there on the web.

You seem to really understand my dilemma. I think I am you about 6 years ago...I am focusing on upgrading and some more organization now.

-Joe