Newspapers are supposed to be informative. Some still do it long after all of their employees have departed this world. I recently bought a copy of the April 23, 1910 issue of Sporting Life, a one-time competitor of the much longer lasting Sporting News. The auction's cool selling point was a big ad on the back page, touting the weekly newspaper's new baseball … [Read more...]
Cobb, Jordan, Ruth, Unopened Cards Push REA to $9.1 Million
On a night when Michael Jordan was back in the news, it wasn't surprising to see Jordan items bringing some of the biggest prices at Robert Edward Auctions, but some top pieces from icons who passed on long before MJ weren't forgotten. An autographed Jordan jersey photo-matched to wear during the 1992 Olympics set a record price for any 1990s Jordan shirt when it … [Read more...]
Marketing the T206 and M101 Sets: Old Sporting Life Ads Offer Insight
An issue of The Sporting Life sold on eBay for over $2,000 on Sunday. While surviving copies of the long defunct sports paper aren’t common, that’s a lot more than they usually bring. This one attracted bidders not for the stories inside or whose picture may have been on the front of the September 4 issue. It was because of one of the ads … [Read more...]
White Whale Surfaces: W600 Ty Cobb Card Uncovered,Heads to REA
File this under you never know what's on the other end of the phone. A call to Robert Edward Auctions' New Jersey office last month yielded an early contender for new discovery of the year. A long-time dealer/collector reached out to the auction house, known for high-end and rare items, to inquire about some items that he'd had in his possession for nearly thirty … [Read more...]
Mantle, LeBron, Jeter Among Top Sellers in $9.4 Million Heritage Auction
Regardless of whether they'd been naughty or nice, hundreds of collectors gave themselves the gift of trading cards over the weekend as Heritage Auctions wrapped up its massive three-day Trading Card Auction. Among the over 3,000 lots offered, four sold for six-figure prices, topped by a 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle graded 8.5 by PSA which netted $765,000 including the 20% … [Read more...]
Philly Find: Stunning M116 Near Set Heading to Auction
Heritage Auctions will offer a nearly complete set of 1910-11 M116 Sporting Life baseball cards in its upcoming November Trading Card Auction. “The Philly Find” is a group of 315 cards that were kept by a Philadelphia family where they had been passed down since the time of issue. The set, which immediately took over first place on the PSA Set Registry after the … [Read more...]
Sterling Sports Auctions Catalog Includes Over 1,000 Lots
Hundreds of pre-War cards including a PSA 7 1935 Goudey Babe Ruth headline the newest Sterling Sports Auctions online catalog. The sale is the largest offering from Sterling in over six years and includes over 1,000 lots, ranging from 19th century baseball cards to popular issues from the modern era. Ruth, Cobb, Mathewson, Johnson are among the names featured in the … [Read more...]
Type 1 W600 Wagner Card at Auction
He was a strapping young man in his 20s, fully deserving of the “Husky Hans” moniker that had been bestowed on the star shortstop of the Pittsburgh Pirates. In fact, it was “Hans” as the nickname of John Wagner’s 1902 W600 cabinet card—not Honus. The Sporting Life cabinets ran from 1902-1911 and Heritage Auctions is selling one of the earliest Wagner W600 cards … [Read more...]
Heritage Card Auction Sales Total $8.8 Million
One of the three 1915 Cracker Jack Joe Jackson cards graded 9 by PSA sold for a record-setting $504,000 in Heritage Auctions' Spring Trading Card sale late last week. Heritage had sold another for $432,000 in 2017. That wasn't the only six-figure card in the auction, though. Seven lots hit that mark in all. Seventeen cards sold for $50,000 or more during the … [Read more...]
Babe Who? 1916 Sporting Life Cover Whiffed on Young Ruth
It wouldn’t be long before his mug became world famous but in the late winter of 1916, not even those whose sole job was to cover baseball knew what he looked like. There’s proof of that in a 102-year-old copy of The Sporting Life—a publication that billed itself “The Loyal Champion of Clean Sport.” They may have been pure in spirit but they didn't always know … [Read more...]