Holy S&&T!
I remember the one inch black and white scans in Sports Collectors Digest, but seeing this me sick to my stomach! I am a collector of Black Sox memorabilia and I actually hoped to buy Barry's lot of eight signed baseballs offered my Sotheby's (Mrs. Joe Jackson, Weaver, Gandil, Cicotte, Williams, Risberg, Felsch and McMillan) as they had a $15,000-20,000 estimate. I was hoping to get it for around $24,000 but the eight balls sold for over $54,000!Scan below from catalog. Knowing what we know now whether it was a great choice having been outbid and not gotten involved in the bidding frenzy I am not sure.
So I clicked at the link above and they actually had 10 single signed baseballs from that 1919 Blacksox team and I was stunned. Gandil sold for $25. Felsch for $100, Jackson sold for a whopping $316! I could have had all ten signed balls for under $1000! That's probably, what...$100,000-120,000 worth of autographs...for $1,000?
I checked this morning and they have more signed Blacksox balls with another Gandil and a Gleason signed softball and another Joe Jackson, all with LOA's from Joseph Sperling.
And to think people are in jail for shill bidding and this is allowed to continue for 20+ years...
Will
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