Favorite ebay, flea market, or antique mall find

[sayhey24]

Here you go Jimmy -- this is one of the signs posted on the road leading to Cooperstown for the 1939 induction ceremony (it has reflective paint that you don't see in person, but is picked up by the camera flash). Don't mean to hijack the thread by showing this, but Jimmy we're all so glad to have you back that I'm glad to answer a request!

Brock -- as I said, it's from his days with the Indians -- a game model bat that is known by bat collectors as a coaches bat (not to be confused by a bat that was made for a player after his career, but never saw a ball field).

Greg

[smtjoy]

Great stories everyone and some cool items/deals.

I mainly prowl ebay and one of my favorite finds a number of years ago was a person selling off stuff from the estate of minor league player Bob Thurman and one of the items was a photo of the PR Santurce with him, Roberto Clemente and another player. It was being sold in a terrible metal frame with weak photos. There was no pics of the back of the photo so I sent the seller a message asking if I could get a scan of the back. He said he could not take any pics as the frame would fall apart if he tried, I emailed him again that it made a big difference on value if he could. He refused and let the auction run, I took a chance not sure if it was a reprint or such and won it for a bit over $200. I got the package and quickly removed it from the cheap $5 frame and now had a 1954 pre major league Clemente photo. Now one of my most prized Clemente items!

[ksfarmboy]

Scott, that Clemente photo probably came out of Wichita. Thurman lived here. I believe his wife sold some of his estate. The card shop I go to still has a few of these photos including the ugly frames your talking about. Nothing with Clemente in it though.

Greg, awesome Johnson bat and that Grove bat is sweet too.

Here's one I picked up off ebay. Not much of a story I got it as a bin. I must have seen it immediately after it was listed. I think she got some offers after I had already won it as she was kind of rude during the transaction. Luckily for me she went through with it. I think it was around $100-150.

[thekingofclout]

Originally Posted by ksfarmboy

Scott, that Clemente photo probably came out of Wichita. Thurman lived here. I believe his wife sold some of his estate. The card shop I go to still has a few of these photos including the ugly frames your talking about. Nothing with Clemente in it though.

Greg, awesome Johnson bat and that Grove bat is sweet too.

Here's one I picked up off ebay. Not much of a story I got it as a bin. I must have seen it immediately after it was listed. I think she got some offers after I had already won it as she was kind of rude during the transaction. Luckily for me she went through with it. I think it was around $100-150.

That is a spectacular piece Clint! Just a gorgeous illustration. Joe never looked so good.

[ruth-gehrig]

Great great stories. Unfortunately I don't have any stories myself but I love the 1939 Hall of Fame Induction sign. Incredible stuff!!

[GrayGhost]

Originally Posted by ruth-gehrig

Great great stories. Unfortunately I don't have any stories myself but I love the 1939 Hall of Fame Induction sign. Incredible stuff!!

SO DO I..I would LOVE that sign

[sayhey24]

Scott --

Since a couple of these were great ebay finds ( I don't want to derail the thread too much), I thought I'd share with you bats of some other no-hitter pitchers.

Greg

[Exhibitman]

I don't really do much prospecting but I have scored some nice hits on miscategorized items on Ebay:

I got this Benny Hill autographed PC at a postcard show where the seller not only sold it for a pittance but showed me that it was signed when I was checking out. Whatever...



Same seller had no idea what this was and let it go for 10% of value:



Best of all is when I know something and hope like heck that the rest of the world misses it--and they do. When I saw this John C. Heenan CDV I knew it was something special because I'd seen an Abner Doubleday with the same kind of copyright notice on it. I did some research and discovered that the copyright notice is pre-1870 and that the card is in fact the earliest known commercially-issued boxing card, made and sold commercially before 1870: