You wrote "A lady contacted me saying she had the following:
20 letters from TY COBB
1 Cobb autographed ball
1 New York Giants team signed 1922 ball
Her relative was a nanny hired by Cobb. All items are being authenicated. Prices for Cobb autographs are all over the place...comments/suggestions?!"
Without knowing what your intentions are, it’s hard giving suggestions. For example, are you looking to help her maximize her $$$ from the sale of the items, or are you looking more toward getting them from her at the least possible price for your own dealings? Or perhaps a hybrid of the two?
20 letters from Ty Cobb – From what I’ve seen over the years, Cobb was a relatively prolific letter writer in his older years. In other words, it’s not hard to find one if you want one. Pricing varies tremendously based on several factors including:
1) Content – A letter with great baseball content, or about his “rivalry” with Ruth, or about his “scandals”, or about the impact the death of his father had on him, would obviously be worth a lot more than letters discussing routine health matters or small talk or “how are you? I’m doing fine.” Etc, etc. etc.
2) Date – Everything else being equal, letters from during his playing days will typically be worth more than letters from the 50’s and 60’s.
3) With envelope or without- Some of his letters on the market still have the original mailing envelopes in his hand and with his initials or TR Cobb or something to that affect in his hand. Everything else being equal, letters with envelope will be worth more than those without
4) Signature – Many of his letters to personal friends and acquaintances will simply be signed “Ty” Everything else being equal, letters signed with his surname as well will be worth more.
5) ALS or TLS – Are they typewritten or handwritten? Many people prefer handwritten.
6) Stationary- Are they on his letterhead or notecards, or on generic paper?
7) Length- Many people will weight this differently. Some people like letters on a single page for small, concise, display purposes, and will pay a premium for that. Other people prefer as much in the athletes hand as possible, and would prefer longer letters on several pages. This factor is highly individualistic.
8) Number of times he uses Cobb in the body of the letter – Although this is generally frowned upon by many people here, there are people that will pay a premium for a lengthy letter where he has used “Cobb” many times in the body, because they will plan to cut those out and make custom cut cards or other souvenir items from them. Again, it’s generally frowned upon here, but it is reality and needs to be taken into consideration when determining worth.
1 Cobb autographed ball – There are multiple factors that will come into play here as well:
1) Single signed or multi-signed – In other words, is Cobb the only signature on the ball? Generally speaking, everything else being equal, the single signed Cobb will sell for a big premium over multi signed balls that include Cobb. With a single signed ball in good condition, I’d expect it to be worth a minimum of 5 figures.
2) Official major league baseball or other ball – An OMLB from his playing days would command more than a little league baseball, or a generic baseball.
3) Condition – Cobb single signed balls are very condition sensitive to determine pricing. Moreso the condition of the signature than the ball, but both are important.
In my opinion, a choice condition Ty Cobb single signed OMLB from his playing days with vintage signature would be quite a find and would be the gem of the items you mentioned.
1 New York Giants team signed ball from 1922 – I’ve got no suggestions on this, never followed the market for that.
Generally, if trying to sell the items:
1) If the Cobb ball is “special”, meaning single signed OMLB from his playing days with vintage signature, then contact auction houses such as REA and Memory Lane and negotiate a no sellers commission deal for yourself, and let them sell it for you using their best judgement on how to maximize the price (IE, private placement with one of their clients, catalog auction, internet auction, etc)
2) If the Cobb ball is a typical multi signed ball, just send it to one of the houses such as Heritage, Lelands, etc. You should be able to search past auction results and get a pretty good idea of what to expect it to sell for.
3) On the letters, I would cull out any that have exceptional content and treat them like the “special” ball above. On the rest of them, I would release them slowly over a two year period, as to not dilute the market and would place them in different auction houses over a period of time, and/or advertise them on internet forums such as this one. You might even consider offering a couple dealers the opportunity to sell the items for you and you set the floor price.
Good luck!
Mike
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