"The Uncle Jimmy Collection" Auction #2 is Now Open For Bids! Ends July 12th!

[chuckw]

Uncle Jimmy Auction #2 is open for bidding and ends July 12th! https://www.wheatlandauctionservices.com/catalog.aspx

Lots # 1 through 600 are all from the Uncle Jimmy Collection.

We like to thank the many media outlets for helping to get the story of the person behind “The Uncle Jimmy Collection” out to into the public. “Uncle Jimmy” was a blue-collar worker who loved baseball until the day he passed away earlier this year. He never paid more than $1.25 for a baseball card and would never pay for an autograph from a player or former player. Helping the family sort, organize and grade the collection has been an honor, and rekindled the reasons I enjoyed the game of baseball and got into collecting! Uncle Jimmy was there for special Babe Ruth games at Yankee stadium, supported Jackie Robinson in his rookie year at Dodgers games, watched rookies named Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays hit their first home runs. I’d also like to thank PSA for putting “Uncle Jimmy Collection” on the flips on the autographed cards – what a great way to memorialize an amazing collection from an amazing collector.

ESPN: https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/...on-uncle-jimmy

ABC Nightly News: https://abcnews.go.com/WNT/video/wwi...ports-71240970

CBS Sports: https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/n...ossibly-worth/

NJ.com: https://www.nj.com/morris/2020/06/nj...-millions.html

NY Post: https://nypost.com/2020/06/11/new-je...aseball-cards/

MLB.com: https://www.mlb.com/news/james-micio...ard-collection

And many more!

[Leon]

I saw it on ABC News last night. A wonderful tribute.

[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.

[Aquarian Sports Cards]

Uncle Jimmy (who it turns out my father knew and lived one block from in Boonton)was 97. Every chance he bought it WAY before 1981.

[RCMcKenzie]

Originally Posted by Aquarian Sports Cards

Uncle Jimmy (who it turns out my father knew and lived one block from in Boonton)was 97. Every chance he bought it WAY before 1981.

I feel young. 51 is the new 31. I'll let it be. It's a great collection. Rob

[chuckw]

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.

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.

[chuckw]

I've attached photos of just some of the TTM work that "Uncle Jimmy" did over the years. There was a massive amount of work that he did in the 1940s through 1960s. He wrote to players, teams, regional card companies, card sellers, famous baseball photographers (including George Burke, George Brace, and Don Wingfield), and others.

[chuckw]

CBS and Dana Jacobson did a nice tribute to Uncle Jimmy: https://www.cbs.com/shows/cbs-this-m...uncle-s-attic/

[brianp-beme]

Uncle Jimmy in this photo looks pretty close to what my Dad did at this age. Although he wasn't much of a baseball collector or even baseball fan, he did say that Babe Ruth was quite the player. So Uncle Jimmy gets to fill in this Father's Day for me. Happy Father's Day Dad, and Happy Father's Day to all that, like Uncle Jimmy, decided not to have children but were still a positive force in young kids' lives.

Brian