Becker Uniform - Antiques Road Show

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Posted By: Jim

Was watching Antiques Road Show this evening and this young guy brought on some real interesting pieces all relating to Beals Becker, probably from 1913 or so. It included his uniform (with his name written in the pants) and two photos, one of which was described as a "yard long" and as being very unique. I was half paying attention (unfortunately trying to also carry on a conversation at the same time), but I think the "expert" put a value of around $5-7k on the uniform and a much higher value on the photo.

Away from the photos (which will probably be of most interest to people here), I frankly came away with the sense that if I'm willing to pay $700 for a mint condition baseball card of a so-so ball player from 100 years ago, getting his actual uniform for 10 times that amount would be something of deal.

I hope someone else was paying closer attention.

Any thoughts?

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Posted By: Mark

Not to quibble with the appraiser who dated the uniform to 1910, I believe it is 1911. In 1910 the stripes were wider, in 1911 narrow like the uniform in the show - which could be the one in this photo:

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Posted By: Bob

We can only pray that the shiney card companies don't get hold of Beal's uniform and make their damnable jersey cards out of it

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Posted By: MVSNYC

i admitedly know nothing about uniform prices, but that estimate ($5-7K) seems pretty low...i'd pay that in a second. from what i gather, uniforms from that era are extremely rare. hopefully some uniform experts can chime in here...i'd love to know what the real estimate would be...if i had to guess, i would say in the $10-15K range.

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Posted By: andy becker

estimates are always low on ARS.

the jersey was real nice, worth way more than 7k.

the panorama was HUGE, i thought he called it "twice the size of a yard photo". i was thinking between 60-72 inches.

gutierez said insure whole group for 50k. i would go no less than 100k.

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Posted By: Alan

Do they give low values so the the appraiser can buy it from the owner once they turn off the camera ?

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Posted By: Dan Bretta

They are not allowed to solicit you specifically for your items, but they can give you their card.

My experience at the Road Show showed exactly how some of these appraisers are not all that knowledgeable. I was severely disappointed...as was my mother.

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Posted By: Mark

In an actual auction, that uniform would more likely realize $15 - $18K. Anything authentic and unaltered from that dead ball era has become exceedingly scarce. That estimate was waaaaay low.

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Posted By: Mark

I agree that the uniform estimate is on the low end. But what do you folks think of the estimate on the 6 foot panorama? Gutierrez said it would fetch between $20,000 and $30,000. Was that also low? That sounds like a lot to me, but I don't follow that market.