A 1946 Babe Ruth signed baseball, a high grade 1908 E102 Honus Wagner card, a beautiful group of unopened football packs from the 1950s, and a big assortment of autographs and memorabilia are among the highlights in the latest Love of the Game auction.
“This auction is easily our biggest and most diverse,” said LOTG Auction Director Al Crisafulli. “We’re featuring a large assortment of high-quality vintage cards, a beautiful selection of sports memorabilia, and in honor of the Super Bowl, a wide variety of quality football cards, unopened packs, and display materials.”
The signed Babe Ruth ball was obtained by a young boy named Kenneth Caselnova in 1946, when The Babe spent 
a week at the Caselnova house while participating in a charity golf tournament in Westport, CT. “Ruth did all sorts of things while he was there. His week-long stay in Westport was well-documented in local newspapers, as was his stay with the Caselnova family,” explained Crisafulli. The ball is inscribed to “Big Kenneth” and comes with a notarized letter from Caselnova, along with authentication from PSA/DNA.
The auction also features a variety of PSA-graded football packs and other unopened football material, including a 1952 Bowman Large wax pack (PSA EX-MT 6), PSA-graded cello packs from 1957 through 1960, unsearched vending boxes from 1974 and 1981, and a rare 1977 Topps Mexican wax box. Also included are a host of empty display boxes from the 1950s through the 1970s.
“We’re pretty psyched about our football offering this time around,” said Crisafulli. “Given the timing of the auction, which closes the night before the Super Bowl, we wanted to give football fans something to be excited about. We think we did a nice job pulling together some scarce cards, beautiful display material, and quality autographs.”
The auction also includes a small grouping of high-grade 1935 National Chicle football cards, including several high numbers, all graded PSA NM-MT 8 or better.
On the baseball side, the auction also features the company’s largest and most diverse selection of T206 cards. Comprising 130 different lots, the auction features Hall of Famers, rare backs, Southern Leaguers, higher-grade commons, group lots, and even a starter “back run,” featuring half the possible back advertisements available in the T206 issue.
The auction also includes an extensive “Pedigreed” card collection. “Pedigreed” cards are graded cards with provenance tracing back to a particular owner, whether it be a hobby pioneer or a pro player. “We’ve got cards from the collections of hobby luminaries like Lionel Carter and Frank Nagy, as well as cards that were owned by a number of Hall of Famers, including Mickey Mantle, Bob Feller, Casey Stengel, Ted Williams, Harmon Killebrew, Dmitri Young, Eddie Stanky, Bill Mazeroski, and more.”
Among the other highlights in the auction:
- The hobby’s highest-graded 1908 E102 Honus Wagner (Batting), with a grade of EX/NM+ 82 from SGC
- A rare 1923-24 Billiken (Cuban) card of Negro League legend and Hall of Famer Juse Mendez
- Numerous high-grade T205s, each graded PSA NM 7 or better.
- The key card in the extensive 2011 Donruss “Limited Cuts” issue: a quad-signed card featuring four 1919 Black Sox figures: Charles Comiskey, Judge Landis, Eddie Cicotte and Chick Gandil
- A collection of memorabilia from the 1978 All-Star game in San Diego, including the American League lineup card as filled out by Billy Martin
A number of rare cabinet cards, including a high-grade 1902-11W600 Sporting Life Roy Thomas, a 1910-12 Plow Boy tobacco Rube Kroh, and two baseball cards from the 1895 N566 Newsboy cabinets issue- An extensive-group of autographs, featuring baseballs, bats, footballs, photos, magazines, cards and posters with key names like Mickey Mantle, Michael Jordan, Wayne Gretzky, Bobby Orr, Lou Gehrig, Muhammad Ali, Joe DiMaggio, Ted Williams, Benny Friedman, Red Grange, Arthur Ashe, and more
Bidding for Love of the Game’s Winter auction will remain open until February 1. For more information, visit the company’s website at loveofthegameauctions.com.
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