Merkin Collection - Part 2?

[bcbgcbrcb]

For those of us Negro League baseball card and memorabilia collectors, pickings have been pretty slim since the Richard Merkin collection wound down after several years of non-stop goodies auctioned by Hake's Americana from around 2010-15. While I was fortunate enough to pick up a few items over the years, most ended up out of my reach as the Negro League market was really exploding at the time.

Well, it looks like the Merkin collection is not finished after all. If you check out the Hake's website, you will find a number of Cuban baseball cards from the 1920's along with vintage photos and other memorabilia. Hopefully, this is just the start with lots more to come. Outside of REA & RMY and a few big ticket items from Heritage, there hasn't been a whole lot of Negro League material to choose from over the past few years.

[brianp-beme]

Changed my comment when I went to auction and saw that all the items have TPG labels with Richard Merkin Collection.

Brian

[barrysloate]

Richard passed away a decade ago, and there hasn't been any of his collection offered in maybe five years. What could be the explanation for this?

[RedsFan1941]

phil about 5 years ago I was talking to one of the guys at hakes and he mentioned you doing some work for them in the area of negro league material. is this still the case?

[triwak]

Interesting stuff! It looks like perhaps, all of the Negro League HOFers have been auctioned off already. But who knows? Maybe more to come...

[Scocs]

I believe all the Negro League HOFer and near HOFer cards were auctioned off between 2011-2012. At least the 1920s material like Billiken, Tomas Gutierrez, Nacionales, and Aguilitas baseball cards...

[bcbgcbrcb]

When the original Merkin stuff was being auctioned by Hakes, I was an active bidder on a number of cards and photos. At one point about halfway through the collection, during 2012, I came across a Negro League photo that needed further clarification so I reached out to them. While they had plenty of expertise in handling the Cuban/Winter League cards portion of the collection, identifying former Negro League stars pictured on photos had been a tougher task as there are very few images to compare to. I offered my assistance, should they ever need help with identifying teams, players, dates, etc. Over the next two or three years, they would send me a number of Negro League player images to identify any key stars and/or HOF'ers. I guess you could say that I has helping them out on a consulting basis, much the same way as every auction house has their "go to" personnel when tough bidder questions/concerns arise and they are not 100% certain of the answers in-house.

At the point that the Merkin items stopped running, I was told that there is still a lot of memorabilia left, however the majority of the "big ticket" items had been sold. The plan, going forward, for the remainder of the collection was going to be handled through exclusive "Merkin Only" auctions, which would appear online only with no catalogues being mailed out. As to why this process has taken so long to resume, my guess is that since Hake's handles so many different types of collectibles besides sports memorabilia, other things probably became priorities and they are finally now getting around to offering the rest of the Merkin collection.

[bcbgcbrcb]

After speaking to the people at Hake’s today, I just wanted to provide an update for those who asked about whether or not there would be any more Negro League HOF cards coming up in future Merkin Collection auctions. I was told that there are still more Winter League HOF’er cards to come, primarily those from the 1940’s such as Toleteros, etc. as opposed to the 1920’s Cuban cards that were auctioned previously. Also, many more original NL photos, postcards, etc. with NL HOF’ers along with many MLB original photos. I was also informed that some of the higher end pieces could appear in either the regular catalogue auctions or online only Merkin exclusive auctions.

[triwak]

Originally Posted by bcbgcbrcb

After speaking to the people at Hake’s today, I just wanted to provide an update for those who asked about whether or not there would be any more Negro League HOF cards coming up in future Merkin Collection auctions. I was told that there are still more Winter League HOF’er cards to come, primarily those from the 1940’s such as Toleteros, etc. as opposed to the 1920’s Cuban cards that were auctioned previously. Also, many more original NL photos, postcards, etc. with NL HOF’ers along with many MLB original photos. I was also informed that some of the higher end pieces could appear in either the regular catalogue auctions or online only Merkin exclusive auctions.

Thank you, Phil. Great information!!!

[Jason19th]

I am very curious, and maybe a bit nervous, about this auction. The majority of the Cuban cards are of lesser known players. I would have been the bidder on many lots 5 years ago when I was putting my Long Branch Cubans collection together but now I am well stocked with players like Ricardo Torres, Jacinto Calvo and Jose Acosta. These were great players who where actually baseball pioneers but may not be appreciated today. I think it is possible that alot of these very rare cards go for a low price.

[Snapolit1]

Damm, for a second I thought one of you guys had a merkin collection. That would be some niche to carve out.