Favorite ebay, flea market, or antique mall find

[Vintage Basketball Pat]

Now that is an Ebay find! That's a great piece!

[JustinD]

This is easily my favorite Ebay find ever. Especially because I get to wear and enjoy it on a regular basis. I found it a few years ago poorly listed as a "Tops" baseball watch. I have never seen nor heard of another out there as of yet. I believe that this was a presentation piece for a Topps Banquet.

It's a 10K gold Hamilton Automatic, and she may run a wee bit fast but I don't care. The watch face is emblazoned with "TOPPS AWARD" with the trophy dead center. It's very intricately done by the factory and beautiful. The back is engraved with "TOPPS FIRST TEAM ALL-AMERICA 1969".

I would love if anyone actually knew anything about this. I would love to know the provenance of who this was actually given to. I'm really not even sure of the sport honestly. It seems like Topps used the phrase all-america more for football, but I am grasping at straws. I have thought it may be even an award for the best college player. I just don't know, maybe one of you does? I just know I love it and lots of people ask about it, it makes a good story.

[thekingofclout]

Originally Posted by JustinD

This is easily my favorite Ebay find ever. Especially because I get to wear and enjoy it on a regular basis. I found it a few years ago poorly listed as a "Tops" baseball watch. I have never seen nor heard of another out there as of yet. I believe that this was a presentation piece for a Topps Banquet.

It's a 10K gold Hamilton Automatic, and she may run a wee bit fast but I don't care. The watch face is emblazoned with "TOPPS AWARD" with the trophy dead center. It's very intricately done by the factory and beautiful. The back is engraved with "TOPPS FIRST TEAM ALL-AMERICA 1969".

I would love if anyone actually knew anything about this. I would love to know the provenance of who this was actually given to. I'm really not even sure of the sport honestly. It seems like Topps used the phrase all-america more for football, but I am grasping at straws. I have thought it may be even an award for the best college player. I just don't know, maybe one of you does? I just know I love it and lots of people ask about it, it makes a good story.

Well Done Justin. That is a fantastic find! I love stuff like that.

[Exhibitman]

First Team All America sounds like college football.

[JustinD]

Originally Posted by Exhibitman

First Team All America sounds like college football.

That's what I have thought also. However, the trophy is that of baseball player. It seems they would have some football reference, but maybe they presented these across a field of sports at the time and the baseball trophy was the default. Really, "first team all-america" can be any college sport, from Soccer to Lacrosse. I am sure it has to be from the big three sports and they couldn't have handed out enough watches for every First team all-american in even one sport because it would have been numerous watches, some would have surfaced here and there. It was probably at a Topps Banquet trying to impress some notable college players coming up. Which at Topps the emphasis was mostly in Baseball during the late 60's. I wish it had a name on it.

[doug.goodman]

It's about a foot and a half square, and cost me 1000 yen (about $8 at the time) at a flea market in Japan...

My favorite ebay item has to do with synchronicity (no, not the Police album). It had been about six months of burning my retnas looking at local library microfiche about the elusive career of Jimmy Claxton, when there it was on ebay; a "Scott Motors of Reno v. Round Mountain baseball ticket, August 4, 1935". Claxton was the pitcher for Scott Motors from 1933-35 (Scott Motors won 33 straight 1932-33), and his son Ed Claxton Sr. was a catcher for the Scott Motors Juniors in 1935. The ticket was $25.

I couldn't believe my luck, all that painstaking library research actually paid off. Had this ticket appeared on ebay a month earlier I would have had no idea about the connection to Claxton. It may not be a landfall find but damn, I EARNED that ticket.

[toppcat]

Originally Posted by JustinD

This is easily my favorite Ebay find ever. Especially because I get to wear and enjoy it on a regular basis. I found it a few years ago poorly listed as a "Tops" baseball watch. I have never seen nor heard of another out there as of yet. I believe that this was a presentation piece for a Topps Banquet.

It's a 10K gold Hamilton Automatic, and she may run a wee bit fast but I don't care. The watch face is emblazoned with "TOPPS AWARD" with the trophy dead center. It's very intricately done by the factory and beautiful. The back is engraved with "TOPPS FIRST TEAM ALL-AMERICA 1969".

I would love if anyone actually knew anything about this. I would love to know the provenance of who this was actually given to. I'm really not even sure of the sport honestly. It seems like Topps used the phrase all-america more for football, but I am grasping at straws. I have thought it may be even an award for the best college player. I just don't know, maybe one of you does? I just know I love it and lots of people ask about it, it makes a good story.

I missed this thread originally. Never seen the watch-wow!

There used to be college All American Baseball Players. I assume one of these ten first teamers received that watch at some point:
P Larry Gura
P Burt Hooton
C Bob Williams
1B Mike Walseth
2B Dick Gold
3B Les Rogers
SS Bill Stein
OF Bob Long
OF Paul Powell
OF Larry Pyle

[LuckyLuke]

Wow...unbelievable finds. Here are a few of mine. Regrettably.....I don't own some of these beautiful pieces anymore. The Rookie Gehrig EXHIBIT was accompanied with the Sisler and a lower grade Ty Cobb EXHIBIT(1927). Within the same week I stumbled across the 1928 World series Game 4 ticket. The others are also nice finds. All these pick up were over the last 2 years and I consider them finds because the costs to purchase was 1/20th of the market value today.