What is Your Greatest Non-Card Discovery ?

[Archive]

Posted By: Ted Zanidakis

I would consider this find as one of my best

About 10 years ago in a small shop in Toms River, NJ
I came across a small (5 x 7) hardcover book with Babe
Ruth on the cover. Its title: "Babe Ruth....The Idol of
the American Boy"; written by Dan Daniels (NY Tribune),
published in 1930 and photos by Charles Conlon.

I was first happy to read the actual Ruth quotes that
were in the book. Then, as I turned the pages I became
quite excited as I stared at "Sincrrly, Babe Ruth" in
script lettering done with a fountain pen.

I had seen enough Ruth autographs to recognize that this
one might be real. The tell-tale clue was the double "r"
in "Sincerely". Subsequently, I showed it to Jimmy Spence
at a show and upon close scrutiny he authenticated it.

You ask, how much did I pay for this neat little book ?
When the shop owner said he wanted $50. for it, I turned
to the page with the inscription and showed it to him.
He said it did not matter, he did not think it was real,
and the price was still $50 dollars.

[Archive]

Posted By: warshawlaw

I was hired in high school over my spring break to clear out approx. 50 file cabinets and move them. Inside to be trashed among 100,000s of pages were tens of thousands of photos and negatives and transparencies from the Academy Awards, plus programs and related ephemera. I was able to keep everything I could carry-virtually a full car load--including two of the envelopes actually used on stage to present the awards (Best Picture and Best Actress). I did really well with that lot over the years.

[Archive]

Posted By: Chris Counts

Back in a teenager in the mid-1970s, I was in Hollywood looking for baseball stuff. In a used book store, I found a book about Bucky Harris from 1925 for about $3. I opened it up, and there were the signatures of the 1924 World Champion Washington Senators, including Walter Johnson ...

[Archive]

Posted By: Dan Lundrigan

GIRLS!

Althought this discovery did lead to the demise of my card collecting for most of my adolescent years!

[Archive]

Posted By: john/z28jd

When my dad was doing work for friends of my grandparents about 20 years ago the lady noticed i liked baseball alot.She asked me if i knew who Babe Ruth was and of course i said yes,around then he was one of my favorite old players.She brought me up to the attic and got me a bat that belonged to her Uncle who happened to be William Bendix.The bat was from the movie the Babe Ruth story,and was in beautiful condition.Luckily even back then i was smart enough not to use the bat to play baseball

Its not an original but we even have a picture with Bendix holding the bat,with Ruth at his side

[Archive]

Posted By: Mike Campbell

About 6 or 7 years ago my wife and I were vacationing in Vermont. When we vacation, we always set aside time to scour antique stores for baseball finds. We were in a tiny little store, and had fun looking, but found nothing. We left the store. My wife will tell you I have a very strange habit of leaving an antique store, but then going back in and giving it a quick once over just in case I missed something. Well we left and I went back in, and in a dark corner, near the front door I spotted Jimmie Foxx's face in a plastic bag nearly buried in the corner. I knew immediately what it was. I went out, got my wife and brought her back in. I proceeded to pull out a bag with 8 "very" excellent condition 1963 Sports Hall of Fame Busts. Including the tough Foxx and Greenberg versions. The whole sack was only $40.00. I asked the store owner if she knew what they were. She said no, but "Were'nt they cute"? I said yes they are. And left. A fun find. Especially since Foxx is my main focul point.

[Archive]

Posted By: joe maples

How about this Ty Cobb loving cup from 1913, shows Cobb wearing his famous hat. Distributed by W.B. Jarvis the Sporting Goods Store, Cobb was part owner for the years 1913-14. 1 store on Woodward Ave in Detroit and the other in Lansing Michigan. I almost choked when I saw this in an antique store about 15 years ago in Dearborn Michigan for $165.00. Since then have picked up the Catalog and the advertisement for the cup which was distributed to schools in Michigan. If anyone has seen another would like to hear from you. Joe

[Archive]

Posted By: Max Weder

My "greatest" non-card discovery was picking up a book, Kevin Kerrane's Dollar Sign on the Muscle (c 1989, not vintage thus, but a great book). The gift inscription read something like:

"Dear Johnny, here's a wonderful book for Christmas. I know there's something in here I'm sure you'll enjoy, love Grampa".

Little Johnny was apparently a little light on literacy. When I opened the book, I found a crisp $10 bill in the middle, sitting there, unloved and unappreciated by little Johnny, who seemingly, along with the bookseller, had never opened the book completely.

When I showed the bookseller, he laughed and told me he should have taken more care, and that the money was mine as long as I bought the book, which I did for $6.

Max

[Archive]

Posted By: Julie Vognar

Boys...

[Archive]

Posted By: Daniel Bretta

I picked up all of these items at one antique store in a small town about a month ago. Full 1930-40's Reach 12 count box of team signed baseballs of Dodger minor league teams and one 1937 Brooklyn ball. Also a 1910 White City (Kansas?) Ramblers composite picture.

[Archive]

Posted By: scott brockelman

do you have any interest is selling(or trading) the white city team photo?

please email if so.

scott

[Archive]

Posted By: Damian

I love hearing about others finds! It keeps me searching and inspired. Daniel, what did you have to pay for those items?

Damian

[Archive]

Posted By: Daniel Bretta

Scott, I'm not really interested in letting go of the photo at this time.

Damian, I paid $500 for all of it.

[Archive]

Posted By: Scott Forrest

A baseball bat used in 1911 in games against the Chicago Leland Giants, Kansas City, KS Giants and Buxton Wonders. Probably used against other pro black teams as well, but documentation exists for those three teams. Also have the players catcher's mitt, uniform and the team scorebook with the KC and Buxton games scored.

[Archive]

Posted By: Andy Baran

As many of you know, I collect cards, photo's, etc. of Sid Gordon. Sid was a very good ball player in the 40's and 50's. He was a distant cousin of mine, but unfortunately I never got a chance to meet him. He died in 1975 when I was only 4 years old.

A couple of years ago I found a copy of his high school yearbook on Ebay. It was not owned by him, but by one of his classmates. I don't remember what I paid for it. It doesn't have much, if any, value in the open market, but the sentimental value is great.

[Archive]

Posted By: Keith

I love hearing these stories of great finds. Also truly impressed with some of the honesty of some of you, especially the person who asked the shopkeeper if they still only wanted $50 for the Babe book even with the auto. I would have paid and ran, but thats just me and my shabby moral character

My best recent find was about 4 months ago. I was at an estate sale in South Jersy which had a ton of sports memoriblia. My biggest find there were 6 different Fred A Kail football statues (2 Eagles, Cardinals, Packers, Steelers, and Rams) some of which had the rare wood bases. I collect these and have paid alot for them in the past, but got all 6 for about $12 a piece. As a side note, I would gladly trade any of the T-cards in my small collection for Kail statues or vintage bobbleheads.

Another recent estate auction find of mine: a 1917 team photo of the Wesleyan West Virginia University football team. Two of the labeled coaches are Coach Neale and Coach Kellison. Neale is the Hall of Famer Greasey Neale who went on to coach the Eagles to championships in 1948 and 1949. Kellison went on to be the Eagles O-line coach for Neale. Also in the photo is a famous Native American player Peter Calac who was a personal friend of Jim Thorpe and they both had played for the Carlisle Indians together the previous year. I have since uncovered and interesting story about how Pete Calac conviced Thorpe that Neale and Kellison could really help Jim Thorpe's current Professional team - the Canton Bulldogs. In 1917 (the year of the photo) Calac, Neale and Kellison also secretly played for the Bulldogs under pseudonyms as to not destroy their amateur statues and lose their positions at Wesleyan U.

[Archive]

Posted By: Tony Andrea

A couple years ago from a well known dealer we all have heard of, I purchased what was said to be original proofs from a Jackie Robinson flip book that was never produced. 14 total and 3"x4" in size. You know the book you would flip thru, and in motion the player would display his swing for you to view. To my surprise about 3 weeks later this so called flip book that was supposedly never produced actually came up for auction elsewhere. It was produced after all and on the back of each print in pencil is a number that matches the exact sequence they are in the book. I could'nt beleive it.
The book has 32 pages so who nows what happened to the others. Pretty amazing the 14 are still in existence to tell you the truth. Proofs are glossy black and white prints that show incredible detail of jackie in full swing.
The flip book measures 2"x3", much smaller than the prints mentioned at 3"x4".
Pretty neat huh???????

[Archive]

Posted By: jay behrens

I've had a number interesting non-card finds. I picked up a first edition of Walter Camp's Football at the MN state fair from a book seller there for $5. Another great find was a nicely bound group scripts from The Banana Splits show I found at an antique store for $50. From the notes that were written inside, I figured that they had to be the scripts that the editors used as there were notes where to insert cartoons and comercials.

When I decided to start selling off my Banana Splits collection, word somehow got to someone high up at Hana-Barbera and they wanted to buy anything that wasn't sold comercially. I mentioned the scripts, among numerous other things I had acquired, and he was very interested in the scripts. I sent a scan of the front page listing all the episodes for the scripts. I got a response back for scans of more pages to confirm the episodes. Turns out the scripts were from the second season. According to the person, all second season material, scripts, films, etc "disappeared" in 1974. I ended up selling them the scripts, some prototypes for different toys and lot of promotional material that was sent by both H-B and the networks to the NBC affiliates that carried the show. This was the seed money that built my Indian collection and ultimately my return to baseball cards.

Jay

I'm incompetent at being incontenent.

[Archive]

Posted By: pete

back in late '70s my mother gave me $3 to pick up a dictionary at the 5 & dime store for school (im 10 yrs old). i passed a yard sale and found a dictionary for .50 cents and figured i'd buy it and keep the $2.50 for myself. when i got home and showed my mother, after yelling at me she opened it to find $1400 placed inbetween the pages.

needless to say, i was forced to return the book to the lady i bought it from. she said her husband who was dead for a number of years must of hid it there and she never knew.

my reward was $20

[Archive]

Posted By: Brad Green

Found this one on eBay about 6 years ago. It probably dates to around 1930.

[Archive]

Posted By: Keith O'Leary

At a local estate sale sale a while back, I purchased a scrap book that had a couple of T206s pasted in it. Also included were a couple of non sport tobacco cards (Piedmont fish, Recruit military, flags, couple of rulers, etc), some nice advertising trade cards, and some other things I figured I could make a profit on.

Amongst this "stuff" was a small piece of paper with a picture of a hand drawn bird on it. To make a long drawn out story short, I live in an area that has a rich German heritage and in the early part of the 19th century, these people produced what is now called "fractur". While I'm no expert, fractur can best be described as embellished calligraphy (you can look it up on the net if you're really interested ). Many of the school teachers of the time were the only literate people around and used their talent to create these things (birth certificates, book plates, memorial pieces, etc.), they go for big bucks. My piece was evidently cut from a child's homework paper. The teacher drew this bird (I think its called a Distlefink) as a "reward of merit" for a job well done (Julie has a baseball related one). The bird had a checkerboard pattern and on the back of this small piece of paper (about 3 X 5") you could read where the student was practicing listing the days of the week as well as part of the alphabet. I sold it for $1600 to a local collector that even knew the teacher that drew it. Evidently he was known for these checkerboard birds, the piece dated from the 1830s.

Every blind groundhog....

 

[Archive]

Posted By: Darren J. Duet

This web site!

[Archive]

Posted By: john/z28jd

aww i was wondering why the background was a shade of red when i clicked on it but now i know.Darren made it blush.Im changing my answer to this web site too!

[Archive]

Posted By: Rich Klein

See title of post

[Archive]

Posted By: Ted Zanidakis

RICH

Your response is the best anyone can expect on this thread.
It says it all.

Thanks.....your long time friend, Ted Z

[Archive]

Posted By: J Levine

As most of you know, the Phillies is where my collection is at it's best. In the past few years I have made some really interesting finds...

About a year ago on ebay I bought a child's composistion book featuring the Phillies battery of Alexander and Dooin. It dates from around 1915-16. Paid what I thought was a fair price. Saw another sell for five times the price in nearly the same condition in an auction 2 months later.

A few years ago, I found three printers blocks of Phillies players...inked them up and printed three nice newspaper quality photos of Callison, Wine, and Taylor. Paid $5 each for them.

Years ago at a clearance sale in downtown Los Angeles at the Sears building, I saw an old Van Huesen sign featuring Phillies players. I do own a few of the 8x10 promos given out in Phila. I bought the poster which featured 3 Phillies for $5.

Bought a Recruit tobacco pack for $1 at a local swap meet when I was 13 years old. They had a piedmont pack too but I only had the $1 and the Recruit pack had the cool picture of the Army guy on it. Both were opened and empty.

Joshua

[Archive]

Posted By: Chris

Sometime in the early 90's I had placed an ad in the newspaper buying cards. I went to this one guys house and he showed me some cards as well as hundreds of old scorecards his Grandfather had collected traveling around the country going to games while he was on business trips. They were all scored. Paid about $3 each for them back then and cherry picked as I didn't have enough money to buy them all. Some of the cooler ones were Yankees scorecards from the 30's where Ruth oir Gehrig had hit HR's and also some from Joe D's first year with the Yanks. Also one from one of Bob Feller's no no's. It was fun just to look through all that stuff. One scorecard showed Gehrif hitting two HR's in one game.

[Archive]

Posted By: Bryan

The best deal

I bought an original wooden slatted chair from Comisky Park for $30.

The favorite

My grandmother visited Vegas often. She hit it big one time on the quarter slots and when she got back she gave me $100 of her winnings in quarters. I saved the money just as she gave it to me after she passed away. One day I decided to buy something I would appreciated more with that money. I was just starting to buy vintage cards but didn't know too much at the time. I had just received the 1933 Goudey Tris Speaker in the mail and that card lists the Kansas City Blues as his team. I was a fan of Tris Speaker so when I saw a Kansas City Blues hat I decided to buy that with the $100 in quarters. (By the way I cashed the quarters at the bank first.)

As it turns out the cap was a game worn cap by Blues manager Dick Bartell in 1948 who was a fairly good player with the Giants, Phillies, and Tigers. Since then I have been collecting Dick Bartell items thanks to the hat I bought with my grandma's quarters she won in Vegas.

[Archive]

Posted By: barry arnold

apple butter from southwest corner of Virginia
or the writings of Vivekananda

tough call.

barry

[Archive]

Posted By: Bill Kasel

My best find was found in my Grandpa's garage about 18 years ago. They were moving to a condo and had lived at their house for over 60 years. While we were cleaning out the garage getting stuff ready for the auction I found a game used Rogers Hornsby bat from the 20's. Of course it was game used by my grandpa when he played local semi-pro ball (or whatever they called it back then). I also found a first edition copy of Pride of the Yankee's. He let me keep both of them. His glove (which was from the mid-19teens) went to the auction though.

The bat is beaten, taped, well used and dirty but it is the centerpiece of my collection. The book has been read by me several times and is proudly displayed.

Bill

[Archive]

Posted By: zach

Kinda the same thing, I have my dads bat from when he was a kid that I found in my grandfathers garage, an Eddie Mathews pro model. Also I found a softball bat that belonged to my grandfather as a kid in his garage. And to top it off there was also a bat used by my great grandfather as a kid from the 20's.

[Archive]

Posted By: warshawlaw

.

[Archive]

Posted By: Josh Adams

When I was in South Haven, MI this summer, I was at a used book store, and came across a scrap book of old white sox photos, newspaper clippings and ticket stubs. No autos or anything, but I didn't care. Great pics of the Baseball Palace of the World.

Go Go White Sox
2005 World Series Champions!