Incredible Baseball Tintype Auction Yesterday

[Hankphenom]

Originally Posted by bobfreedman

Here is an image of the inkwell

Wonderful piece, Bob.

[GaryPassamonte]

Bob- I have a bell using same batter figure on top of the bell. I think the maker is James W Tufts.

[1880nonsports]

easy to miss a couple along the long and winding road to a collection. I would have liked to add a couple of special examples to go along with Mark's book. There were quite a few images I would have chased. Likely I'll go back and register so I can see the prices realized for the hierarchical perspective.
Not likely I'll see such an accumulation again at auction I'm too old.....

[slidekellyslide]

Seems an odd place to have this auction. How do you guys who saw it think it went? I imagine REA, Heritage or any other house that specializes in baseball would have done better.

[aquarius31]

Originally Posted by slidekellyslide

Seems an odd place to have this auction. How do you guys who saw it think it went? I imagine REA, Heritage or any other house that specializes in baseball would have done better.

I was wondering the same thing. There were several of the tintypes that sold <$200 which is obviously low but then again, it's likely that they would have been sold as a lot of 3 or more in REA or Heritage. I do think that perhaps a subset of the tintypes (particularly the ones that appear to be 1860's) may have gone for more in a different AH. It was neat though to see the variety of tintypes and memorabilia that were available...you'd be hard pressed to not find at least 1 item that peaked your interest. I was watching over 20 items (some non-baseball), put bids on 2 items and won 1.

[Huysmans]

Originally Posted by slidekellyslide

Seems an odd place to have this auction. How do you guys who saw it think it went? I imagine REA, Heritage or any other house that specializes in baseball would have done better.

Dan, I think prices were pretty strong across the board for the tintypes, so I'm not sure if a different venue would have increased the final hammer prices. They might have been even stronger with one of the big guys though like REA. As mentioned, an accumulation like this is rarely if ever seen.

Henry, you don't have to register to see the prices realized, just click on any item you want to see, the final price is listed.

[Leon]

Originally Posted by Huysmans

Dan, I think prices were pretty strong across the board for the tintypes, so I'm not sure if a different venue would have increased the final hammer prices. They might have been even stronger with one of the big guys though like REA. As mentioned, an accumulation like this is rarely if ever seen.

Henry, you don't have to register to see the prices realized, just click on any item you want to see, the final price is listed.

I would have raised some of those bids had I seen the auction. Not a big deal. I have plenty to concentrate on.

[Joe_G.]

I was watching for someone to post something about this auction, didn't think to look on the memorabilia side. I too was very impressed with the auction offerings.

I bid on four lots, won three. Nothing in the auction was directly within my collecting scope but I couldn't help myself, guilty of scope creep.

Lot #1 - Loved the Civil War tax stamp. A 5 cent tax meant this tintype cost between $0.51 - $1.00 which was a healthy sum for a single photo. The tintype is tinted (green pants) and likely purchased with a frame, both driving cost up (current frame could very well be original to tintype). Most canceled stamps lack a date but this photographer had a cancel stamp much like the post office with a clear March 10th, 1865 cancel. Neat cross-over collectable of early baseball image that can be precisely dated via a legible canceled Civil War tax stamp.





Lot #18 - While advertised as "circa 1869 Cincy", I too had and have some doubts. However, as I studied the 1868-1870 Cincinnati teams I found some of the 1870 uniforms are good match for the "C" but the bibs are not outlined as shown on tintype. This could be a good match for the 1871 uniform had the team not dissolved . . . Nov 1870 newspaper mentions a new traveling uniform for 1871, maybe striped cap? I'm interested enough to keep researching, not sure anything conclusive will turn up. At a minimum, appears to be a well financed club, great looking early uniform. PS - I reversed the image left-to-right to correct the image.



Lot #21 - Not even sure which club this would be but again a great image of a well dressed early player. Success for me on this tintype would simply be to identify possible team(s).



Lot #47 - Jack Ryan - This was the 4th and final tintype of interest but I bowed out. Would have been very different if he were a member of the Detroit Wolverines. I too sent images to auction house on this lot. I didn't know it was Jack Ryan until auction house updated the listing, well done Bryan!

Corey, I believe the same gal who helped me out with phone bids called you at about lot #46 as I recall her saying "hello Corey" and she then put you on hold until Anson came up a few lots later. Great items in this auction, too interesting to pass up.

[Jobu]

They had the Jack Ryan photo (which is pretty awesome) id'd as Dan Brouthers until I shared some research to demonstrate to them it is Ryan. To their credit, they changed the listing.

I only ended up with one photo - I thought these guys were too fun to pass up.

[eastonfalcon19]

They were all really nice. I tried for this one but didn't win it. I really liked this one.

https://www.auctionzip.com/auction-l...ts_803458DA39/

[GaryPassamonte]

Regardless of the auction house, prices would be kept down with so many offered at one time. This is a thin market. I experienced a similar result when I sold a large portion of my baseball cdv collection over a couple auctions a number of years ago. The top examples brought strong results, the more common examples not so much. Also, I think the perception is that the images being auctioned are more common than they really are because so many are auctioned at the same time. This of course is not true. However, I do believe a sports auction would have brought more eyes to the tintypes.