Just back from the National and it was a great show all the way around. Had a chance to meet many folks I have corresponded with for years but never met. Consignments were good and so where bat sales. I know folks are always looking for market data so is a quick recap of what MEARS sold:
-1943-1949 Mickey Owen H&B: $1100
-1945 Babe Herman H&B: $1800
-1956-1957 Charlie Neal Adirondack: $650
-1957 Joe Pignatano H&B: $520
-1934-1944 Dixie Walker H&B: $1300
-1933-1934 Chick Cuccinello H&B: $520
-1954-1960 Don Zimmer H&B: $1040
-1968-1970 Johnny Roseboro Adirondack: $350
-1922-1925 Hack Miller H&B: $650
-1953 Gene Hermanski: $600
-1922-1925 Irish Meusel Kren: $800
-1950-1959 Ransom Jackson H&B: $425
-1950-1955 George Shubba H&B: $1100
MEARS evaluated items did very well at auctions held on site as well:
-1908 Cy Young Road Jersey: $657,250
-1934 Lou Gehrig Tour of Japan Uniform: $507,875
-1919-1920 Red Faber White Sox Jersey (1919 World Series): $68,712
-1942 Stan Musial Home Rookie Uniform: $77,675
-1977 Reggie Jackson Road Jersey: $38,837
-1982 George Brett Road Uniform: $9,560
We also took in retail submissions for the evaluation of (please note we don’t do uniform work on site):
-1941 Ted Williams Road Uniform
-1954 Eddie Mathews Home Jersey
-1962 Hank Aaron Home Uniform
-1980 Mike Schmidt Home Uniform
-1971 Willie Mays Home Jersey
As well as modern knits of future Hall of Famer’s Thome, Griffey, Jr, and Frank Thomas. The most interesting of the bunch is what well in fact turn out to be a 1967 Reggie Jackson Kansas City Athletics yellow rookie jersey. More to follow as that progresses.
Additions to the MEARS exemplar library included:
-1982 A’s Home
-1994 Reds Home (Tough Patch)
-1944-1945 White Sox Road
-1976 A’s Home (All Original)
-Copy of 1947 Heilbroner Baseball Bureau Annual
We also brought a number of uniforms from the exemplar library for collectors to see and examine if they wished. These included:
-1945 Yankees Home
-1945 Browns Home
-1946 Giants Home
-1950 Braves Road
-1950 A’s Road (Rare Connie Mack 50th Anniversary Jersey)
-1965 Reds Home
-1969 Pilots Road
-1970s Indians Home (Red)
-1975 Astros (One Year Style)
-1975 Red Sox Road
-1979 Pirates Home (Bumble Bee Style)
-1978 White Sox Home
-1982 Expos Home (With All Star Patch)
Additionaly, I took the opportunity to bring my digital microscope and some fabric sample catalogs and walked a number of collectors through the process of evaluating flannel fabric by grade/quality. General sensing was they would like to see additional educational efforts conducted on site and this is something I am more than willing to make time for as long as the interest is there.
I also spent a great bit of time pouring through photos at the John Rogers Photo Archive booth. Best part was getting a chance to meet John and just talk with him and Chris, Mike, and Bill as well. John is hoping to have the archive digitized in the around another 90 days. When you consider this archive includes millions of photographs, it will be a real “game changer” in the hobby/industry as far as I’m concerned.
Special Shout out to Hartel Sports for allowing me to take photographs of some tagging to support a current project/evaluation.
In short; Great Time and all of this will likely lead to an increased show presence for MEARS.
MEARS Auth, LLC
As always, collect what you enjoy and enjoy what you collect.
For questions and comments on this article, please feel free to contact me at DaveGrob1@aol.com