Bill Kellick’s father was born in 1923 and as a teenager, he purchased the annual Who’s Who in Baseball. Not only did he devour the contents of the annual guides that offered current biographies of players, he used the books to contact hundreds of players, including some retired legends.
In a first-person story recount on the Uniwatch website, Kellick wrote, “The bios sometimes included the players’ mailing addresses — unthinkable in today’s world — so my father wrote letters to numerous ballplayers. Many of them wrote back, usually with a nice, cordial letter. My father would then cut out the player’s signature and paste it in his copy of Who’s Who, often next to the player’s bio and usually accompanied by the date of the autograph.
Kellick inherited the books after his father passed away 20 years ago and showed off several of the pages in his Uniwatch story. But the cut signatures aren’t the only thing in the collection.
My father also kept many of the original letters and the envelopes they came in, which show an array of hotel envelopes and stationery.”
You can check out the full article and photos here.
—–
Bidding for the PSA 9 1951 Bowman Mickey Mantle rookie card at Memory Lane has reached $2.3 million with the buyer’s premium factored in. That price has tripled the old record set in 2018. The auction continues through Saturday night.
The card is one of nine Mint 9 copies in the PSA Population Report.
—–
Robert Edward Auctions President Brian Dwyer appeared on Nasdaq’s Trade Talks show Wednesday, discussing the business side of the hobby.
“I think you’re going to see great price support for very rare and iconic items,” he predicted when asked about the near future. “I think you’re going to see some notable entrants into the market either individuals or institutions that take advantage of some of the tools and software and automation that’s become available. They feel more comfortable investing in this as an alternative asset.”
You can watch the entire 4-minute segment here.
—–
Another former Olympian from Ukraine is selling his Olympic medals to help the war torn nation. As we reported earlier this month, Yuri Cheban is selling his gold medals from 2012 and 2016 and his bronze from 2008 through SCP Auctions.
“I think a lot of people in the world don’t know the full extent of the situation in Ukraine,” the 36-year-old Cheban told the Associated Press. “Right now, peaceful Ukrainian cities are without electricity, hospitals, schools, stores. People are freezing in their own apartments and some of my family is trying to live and work under these conditions.”
The auction runs through Dec. 10.
—–
Auction of Champions, which began offering 0% consignment rates for trading cards that sell for at least $200 earlier this year, will ship purchases for free from Dec. 1- Dec. 7. The company has both trading card and autograph auctions this week.
—–
SGC is the latest grading company to partner with PWCC on a deal aimed at getting cards graded and up for sale in a short time frame.
The new deal allows collectors to submit ungraded cards to PWCC, which will send them to SGC for grading at a cost of $20 per card. Within about ten days, the cards will be graded and shipped back to the PWCC Vault in Oregon where they can be kept or placed for sale or auction through the company’s marketplace.
The $20 cost to grade each card through the service is $20 regardless of genre, category, or value. Clients can send their authenticated cards directly to auction and have the fee taken out of the final sale price or send cards directly to the vault and pay the invoice after the item is ingested.
“Every decision that we make is first carefully vetted through the lens of the collectors that we are paid to serve. When assessing this collector-centric partnership, the decision to move forward was an easy one,” stated Peter Steinberg, CEO at SGC.
Related Stories:
Mickey Mantle’s Signed Rookie Card Contract Coming to Auction
Notes: Shop Door Smash Caught on Video
Cobb Back T206, Ruth Rookie Pace $6.6 Million REA Sale
6,000 Bids in 24 Hours for REA Auction
Mile High Giving Away Mantle Rookie at NSCC
1952 Topps Mays Tops Bidding in $11 Million Auction
Mantle Cards Crush Records in MLI Auction
45 Years Ago Marked End of the Line for Mickey Mantle
