Vintage Basketball programs

[Joe Hunter]

Early Final Four programs are pretty valuable. One that comes to mind is the 1957 Final Four at Municipal Auditorium in Kansas City. That program featured the triple-overtime win by North Carolina over Wilt Chamberlain and the Kansas Jayhawks in one of the semifinal games. I've seen that program bring upwards of a thousand dollars in average condition.

[theantiquetiger]

Originally Posted by Joe Hunter

Early Final Four programs are pretty valuable. One that comes to mind is the 1957 Final Four at Municipal Auditorium in Kansas City. That program featured the triple-overtime win by North Carolina over Wilt Chamberlain and the Kansas Jayhawks in one of the semifinal games. I've seen that program bring upwards of a thousand dollars in average condition.

Some one found a 53 Final Four program at the same estate sale I found mine. He already has it on eBay. His is not in as good condition as mine. I am very interested in what it sells for.

I paid 50 cents for mine. It was under a stack of magazines. The top 4 magazines were LSU magazines & programs (worth about $10-$20 each). The bottom two magazines were the 53 Final Four and 1954 NBA in Preview magazine. I took them just because they were 50 cents each. I didn't realize it was a LSU Final Four program and Bob Pettit's rookie year magazine until a few hours later when I was talking to my friend about what I found. My jaw hit the ground while I was on the phone when I realized what it was.

The guy who offered me $500 for it the same day is a friend of mine and is some what of a LSU program expert. He called another expert/dealer and they figured it is worth $1000. The other expert has never seen one, but had sold a Sweet 16 program from that year for $500+.

[Jewish-collector]

Excellent topic !!! I am a HUGE collector of vintage basketball memorabilia, including vintage basketball programs, although I can't afford the really good stuff. The early NCAA programs are really valuable as are the early professional programs, especially all-star programs and playoff programs. The National Basketball League (NBL) programs, which was the league before NBA, are very rare and in huge demand and bring top dollar on ebay and/or the auction houses.

Alan