Quote:
Originally Posted by RCMcKenzie
I'm all for a good story. I don't remember T206 Cobb's selling for $1.25. My Dad paid $75 in 1981 for a T213-2 Cobb bat off, because it was the cheapest Cobb at the show.
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He likely acquired most of his card collection in the 1930s-1960s. The pack-fresh sets that are selling in the current auction he put together from packs and put them away (that's why we've seen PSA 9s and 10s from many of the cards that were sent for grading). The T206 cards, including the Cobb and Mathewson overprint in the auction, were together within a couple of frames that looked like they were framed in the 1940s or 1950s. So when Uncle Jimmy told family he could never pay more than $1.25 for a card, we are talking about 50-90 years ago when he made most of his purchases. His TTM return envelopes from players, teams, famous baseball photographers, and card companies were mostly from 1940s-1960s. He was a WW2 veteran who worked in a factory and as a school custodian his entire life after the war, and he collected for the love of the game and the collectibles, not for the value.
Here's a cool story that we were able to piece together. Uncle Jimmy went to the famous War Benefit game at Yankee stadium in 1942, where Babe Ruth came out of a 7-year retirement to face Walter Johnson (who had been retired 15 years). Ruth hit 2 home runs in that old-timer game held before the Yankees and Senators double header - here is his program and ticket stub.
https://www.wheatlandauctionservices...-LOT15669.aspx
A couple months later, Uncle Jimmy was called to serve his country in WW2. He was at Babe Ruth Day, when Babe said his final farewell right before he passed from cancer.
https://www.wheatlandauctionservices...-LOT15680.aspx
Then he supported Jackie Robinson in his rookie year, going to many games in his rookie year and wearing pins supporting Jackie.
https://www.wheatlandauctionservices...-LOT15522.aspx
https://www.wheatlandauctionservices...-lot15523.aspx
... and he even followed Mantle and Mays in their rookie seasons (it must have been amazing to be able to rotate between Yankees, Dodgers, and Giants games in New York). The game programs (with ticket stubs and his notes) helped us piece it together. That's also why there are so many cool PM10 stadium pins - Uncle Jimmy would pick them up at the ballpark and they were stored away in a box for decades.