Very, very, interesting...

[travrosty]

Originally Posted by prewarsports

I wasn't saying that autographs were worth money in the 1940's necessarily, but that people by the 1940's were starting to think of these signed baseballs as more than just whimsical things and started to put them away and keep them nice. A much higher percentage put some type of value on a Babe Ruth ball in 1947 than in 1927 absolutely 100% for sure. If a kid got a Babe Ruth signed ball in 1930, he would show his friends and then a few weeks later probably play with the ball or handle it A LOT. By the 1940's shortly before Ruths death people were starting to understand that signed baseballs of Ruth were a treasure and SOME people (not everyone obviously) were starting to keep stuff like this in sock drawers and treasure them. And yes a small percentage of the population (again, not everyone) put a monetary value on autographs increasingly by the 1940's, if you dont believe me I can post the fly page of any Watermans Autograph Contest Album from 1932 where they spend a full page talking to kids about collecting and saving autographs for their future monetary value! I bet only 1 in 1000 people put any type of value on autographs in the 1940's, but that is better than the 1 in 1,000,000 who put any type of value on them in the 1920's and that is why you see some high grade Ruth balls from the 1940's but never any mint or near mint ones from the 1920's in my opinion. How many fakes there are I have no idea, I am just speaking to why there will be more high grade ones from later in Ruths life than during his career.

its not true, his autograph in the 40's was worth about zero, and people werent socking them away for future resale monetary value. just didnt happen. a few socked them away because they wanted a sentimental momento but not because they were 'worth' anything or had the potential to be 'worth' anything. there was no resale market for ruth balls, because there was no demand, thus no expectation of demand in the future.