Highest Price Baseball Related

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Posted By: Joann

If we are in the realm of the hypothetical, if any card of Ruth before the 1914 Baltimore Newsboys were to come to light, I imagine that one would really bring high numbers. Or anything confirmed game-used from his St. Mary's Industrial days. Or his first home run ball. That's one to try to imagine.

On the other hand, a few years ago a ball that was presented as the ball used in the first baseball game was sold in a Mastro auction. It had fairly decent provenance, including letters from both Alexander Joy Cartwright and his estate, that suggested it was used in the very first game in June 1946.

I watched that auction like a hawk, thinking that would surely go for a gazillion dollars. It ended up at something like $65,000 or so, which surprises me even to this day. Not sure if people didn't buy the tie-in to the first game, or if it just wasn't that interesting, but I thought it would go higher.

So .. my ability to guess at prices that are borderline hypo is, obviously, not very good.

Joann