Closing tonight - Sandy Koufax Memorabilia Collection at Auction

[rlevy]

After over 35 years collecting Sandy Koufax vintage items, I have decided to part with many pieces of my collection through Heritage’s Platinum auction. The majority of the items are unique and one-of-a kind, and include:

1. The Chicago Cubs dugout lineup card from Sandy Koufax’s Perfect game 9/9/65.
2. A game-used baseball from Game 4 of the 1963 World Series when the Dodgers completed the sweep of the Yankees, with photomatch.
3. Line-up cards from Koufax World Series wins in the 1963 and 1965 World Series.
4. Full tickets to the Koufax perfect game and his first 2 no-hitters.
5. A full Elsie the Borden Cow ticket to Koufax’s first win in 1955.
6. Koufax contract to play winter baseball in Puerto Rico in 1956.
7. Koufax military ID card
8. 1963 Unopened Jell-o Box with Koufax on the back
9. A beautiful George Sosnak folk art baseball commemorating Koufax’s 3rd no-hitter
10. A 1955 Spring training roster program, with 50 signatures, signed by nearly everyone in camp that spring (incl. Robinson, Campy, Snider,Reese,Koufax,Hodges,Drysdale- who wouldn’t make the team until 1956,Lasorda,Alston,Scully, and O’Malley).
11. An x-ray of Koufax’s pitching elbow taken by the team Dr. Robert Kerlan in August 1964.

The first 2 items close Saturday, August 23, the rest close Sunday August 24. A link to these items is below. Please feel free to ask any questions you may have on these items.

http://sports.ha.com/c/search.zx?sal...preview-notice

Rick Levy

[RICHIEHARRIS]

Hi Rick…
As a huge Koufax fan, that’s quite a listing!
Hope you do well with the sales.
I think I’d have to cringe seeing what was in the X-Ray…but not as much as if I saw one taken after the 1966 season…after two more years of complete games on that arm!
Take care!
-Richie

[Scott Garner]

Wow, Rick- incredible!
I wish you great success with your sale

For those that don't know, Rick's Koufax collection is Epic!!
This is the good stuff!

[rlevy]

Thanks Richie and Scott. still have a week to go, it will be interesting to see where these items end up.

Rick

[doug.goodman]

Best of luck Rick!

[RICHIEHARRIS]

If anyone wants to send Sandy a birthday card for his upcoming 90th on 12/30 his post office box address is:
6001 North Hwy A-1A
Vero Beach, FL 32963

No guarantees that it is accepted; he has been refusing mail...mostly packages...but if you write "Happy Birthday" on the envelope the ladies at the P.O. may send it through.
Check to see if Kara still works at the P.O....she determines what goes through or not.

[rlevy]

Friendly bump reminder that the second session of the auctions closes tonight.

Rick

[Topnotchsy]

How do you feel about the way things ended.

I thought the perfect game lineup sold well, but was surprised at how low the others went (except for maybe one of them).

My lineup cards generally did shockingly poorly outside of the Ripken 3000th which did ok, albeit below estimates.

[rlevy]

Jeff, auctions are so unpredictable, especially with one-of-a-kind items. I do think the items had good exposure in the catalogs and online. But I did think they were all going to be displayed at the National, but apparently not all of my items were there. That may have been a factor, but who knows.

I was a little wary about putting 15 Koufax items in one auction with individual 30 minute closings, since collectors have to pick which items to go after and can't circle back to items once they are closed. That may have happened with the lineup cards, which were among the first to close. I also know one collector on the east coast who fell asleep and missed getting in bids on several items and was kicking himself Monday morning for missing out.

The puzzler for me is I see that a 1965 WS game 1 stub, which he famously sat out for Yom Kippur, signed by Koufax, went for over $10,000 My 1965 WS game 7 lineup cards, where he actually played and pitched his second shutout in 3 days, signed by Koufax, went for only $3,900. While not logical to me, I think it just depends on what collectors find they like at the moment.

Rick

[Snapolit1]

Photos and memorabilia hard to predict. Sometimes they obliterate expectatioons/estimates and other times they don't. I've had it both ways this year. Photos, ticket stubs, scorecards are sought by collectors and not flippers, "investors". Demand is not equivalent.

I was watching a photo in Heritage where the estimate was "$40,000 +" It sold for $10,500. Other photos hit there estimates, and others did not.

Don't see quite the feeding frenzy for memorabilia, other than of course the Ruth and Gehrig jerseys type stuff.

[perezfan]

Originally Posted by rlevy

Jeff, auctions are so unpredictable, especially with one-of-a-kind items. I do think the items had good exposure in the catalogs and online. But I did think they were all going to be displayed at the National, but apparently not all of my items were there. That may have been a factor, but who knows.

I was a little wary about putting 15 Koufax items in one auction with individual 30 minute closings, since collectors have to pick which items to go after and can't circle back to items once they are closed. That may have happened with the lineup cards, which were among the first to close. I also know one collector on the east coast who fell asleep and missed getting in bids on several items and was kicking himself Monday morning for missing out.

The puzzler for me is I see that a 1965 WS game 1 stub, which he famously sat out for Yom Kippur, signed by Koufax, went for over $10,000 My 1965 WS game 7 lineup cards, where he actually played and pitched his second shutout in 3 days, signed by Koufax, went for only $3,900. While not logical to me, I think it just depends on what collectors find they like at the moment.

Rick

Regarding the first part in bold... I also believe that was a factor. With so many unique Koufax items all closing at once, the pool of advanced Koufax collectors was taxed to the limit in a confined setting.
People love to bitch and moan about late-night auction closings, but the ability to jump form lot to lot (without anything closing prematurely) really serves to benefit the consignor.

Regarding the second part in bold... I've learned to never apply "logic" to these auctions. There are just too many sales that defy logic (both negative and positive). Bidders are fickle, and it often just depends upon who sees it and the mood of who's bidding at the end.

Hopefully you are still happy with the overall total realized... those were some unique killer items!

[premiercardcollectors]

Originally Posted by rlevy

Jeff, auctions are so unpredictable, especially with one-of-a-kind items. I do think the items had good exposure in the catalogs and online. But I did think they were all going to be displayed at the National, but apparently not all of my items were there. That may have been a factor, but who knows.

I was a little wary about putting 15 Koufax items in one auction with individual 30 minute closings, since collectors have to pick which items to go after and can't circle back to items once they are closed. That may have happened with the lineup cards, which were among the first to close. I also know one collector on the east coast who fell asleep and missed getting in bids on several items and was kicking himself Monday morning for missing out.

The puzzler for me is I see that a 1965 WS game 1 stub, which he famously sat out for Yom Kippur, signed by Koufax, went for over $10,000 My 1965 WS game 7 lineup cards, where he actually played and pitched his second shutout in 3 days, signed by Koufax, went for only $3,900. While not logical to me, I think it just depends on what collectors find they like at the moment.

Rick

What a wonderful collection and I’m sure was tough to let it go. I was an active bidder on several of your items but others had more means than me to win them.

I can say that as an avid collector of Jewish sports, the Yom Kippur game was something that was a source of pride for all Jews and really propelled Sandy to Hero status in the Jewish community. I remember as a kid anytime I would complain about the holiday restrictions or fasting etc, my Dad (who is from Brooklyn) would always say … “Sandy Koufax gave up the opportunity to play on Yom Kippur in the World Series so you can not watch TV”. lol.

Anyway, that ticket has meaning beyond the game. Congratulations. All of your items exceeded my expectations.

Best

Geoff


Geoff Bedine
Premier Card Collectors
Since 1977

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Jewish-collector]

Many of the Jewish baseball memorabilia collectors that I know are not high end collectors. In any case, it was fun watching these incredible Koufax items in the auction.

[Topnotchsy]

At any other time I would have won at least one of the Koufax WS lineup cards, but the timing didn't work for me given how poorly my auctions did.

[rlevy]

Originally Posted by perezfan

Hopefully you are still happy with the overall total realized... those were some unique killer items!

Mark, yes, I am fine with the overall results. I was fortunate to have acquired many of these items many moons ago, and I was willing to let the market decide their value. Hence, low opening bids with no reserves.

Originally Posted by premiercardcollectors

.

I can say that as an avid collector of Jewish sports, the Yom Kippur game was something that was a source of pride for all Jews and really propelled Sandy to Hero status in the Jewish community. I remember as a kid anytime I would complain about the holiday restrictions or fasting etc, my Dad (who is from Brooklyn) would always say … “Sandy Koufax gave up the opportunity to play on Yom Kippur in the World Series so you can not watch TV”. lol.

Anyway, that ticket has meaning beyond the game. Congratulations. All of your items exceeded my expectations.

Best

Geoff

Geoff, I agree that the ticket does have special meaning. As a Jewish 12 year-old Bleed Dodger Blue fan, I can guarantee you my first reaction to hearing Sandy was sitting out game 1 wasn't "Wow, that's great", but rather "Oh NO!". The significance didn't really hit me until much later in life. But a major part of that whole experience is that Sandy came back and pitched consecutive shut-outs in games 5 and 7 (game 7 was on 2 days rest, and he had no curveball that day). Sandy was visibly relieved after game 7 because he didn't want his sitting out game 1 to be the focus of attention, which it would have been if the Dodgers hadn't won that series. His ability to preform the way he did, while still preserving his values, is what makes him special to many of us. So when I pointed to the Game 7 line-up cards on the wall, I could say that these were from the series where Sandy sat out the first game for Yom Kippur (which everyone always remembered), then pitched a shutout in this game on 2 days rest to win the series for the Dodgers. I just don't know if it would be as well remembered by everyone if the Dodgers lost that series. Luckily, we will never know.

Rick