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1910 Joe Jackson Card Sells For Record $200,000; Lou Gehrig Jersey $329,000; T206 Wagner hammered down at $188,000; Countless Baseball Card Auction Records Shattered At Robert Edwards Auctions.

Watchung, New Jersey. The strength of the high-end baseball card and memorabilia market amazed collectors at Robert Edward’s record-setting May 7, 2011 auction. An astounding 179 lots sold for $10,000 or more. Collectors, dealers, and market watchers look to REA’s annual event as the key barometer of the health of the market and the most important auction event of the year. According to REA president Robert Lifson, “The market was extremely strong. If everything went perfect we were expecting the total to be maybe $7 million to $8 million. The results came in at $9.5 million. That about says it all.” The secret? “Great material, care in cataloguing, the biggest circulation, extensive research and authentication, the well-deserved confidence of buyers, and an emphasis on the integrity of the auction process. It’s a powerful combination.” By any measure, this was one of the most successful auctions in the history of collecting. “It was also the smoothest running auction in all respects, including collecting the money. You’d think that there would be a few delays here and there in collecting money and getting it in the hands of consignors when you’re talking about $9.5 million dollars. There weren’t. That’s another extremely strong area for REA. All consignors were paid in full, 100 cents on the dollar with no adjustments due to nonpaying bidders, and in record time. That’s the standard we strive for and achieve at REA when it comes to paying consignors. Perfection. Consignors really appreciate getting paid 100 cents on the dollar.”

The stunning prices on all nineteenth and early twentieth century baseball cards and memorabilia precisely totaled a staggering $9.532 million dollars across 1743 lots. The average lot sold for $5,472. The Lou Gehrig jersey and the Lou Gehrig bat selling for $329,000 and $176,250 respectively – both records for these items- paced the memorabilia offerings. The bat was a personal gift from Gehrig to his neighbor. “This was the best Gehrig bat we’ve ever seen. Because of the provenance, it doesn’t get any better.” The bat last sold at auction eleven years ago for $50,000. “That was a record price in 2000, and $176,250 is a record price in 2011. It may be a long time before we see this bat again. When we do, my guess is it will be a lot higher still. This is an incredible bat.” The bat was not the only Gehrig item of special note in the auction. “The Lou Gehrig jersey was also particularly exciting. It had previously sold so recently – just two years ago – for $240,000, and usually when unique big-ticket items are offered again so soon they sell for a lot less. That’s to be expected. It’s the nature of markets and collectibles. Add to this the fact that the jersey was reevaluated and graded at a lower level in the current auction than its 2009 sale elsewhere, in addition to attempts by adversaries to create additional controversy – trying to put a negative spin on our authentication analysis and even questioning the authenticity of the jersey itself – and it wouldn’t have been surprising if it sold for a significant discount. The consignor certainly expected to take a big hit. But that’s not what happened! REA’s online presentation and analysis of photographs of Gehrig – photos in which he is wearing this very jersey – really made a difference. People could see for themselves this was really Gehrig’s jersey and he was wearing it. Instead of selling for less than in 2009 elsewhere, the jersey sold for $89,000 more at REA in 2011. And this was with the jersey graded a “7” instead of a “9” (on a scale of “1 to 10” primarily for condition)!”

Vintage Cards Prices Soar At REA: REA is first and foremost a baseball card auction, so it is not surprising that the big money, as usual, was in the cards: The T206 Wagner (reserve $25,000) proved once again that it can always be counted on to sell for well into six figures in any grade. In this case, a restored example sold for $188,000. And not just the T206 Wagner but all things related to the famous T206 set were very strong. The T206 Eddie Plank in Very Good to Excellent condition (reserve $10,000; estimate $25,000+) sold for $94,000, a new record price for the grade. T206 Magie Error cards in VG and VG-EX condition realized $17,625 and $23,500 respectively. Even a second T206 Plank, heavily trimmed and encapsulated as “Authentic”, sold for a remarkable $41,125. “Interest in this card was helped by its rare back. Almost all Planks have Sweet Caporal backs. The Piedmont back made this example very special. For T206 collectors, especially as interest in backs is growing like wildfire, this card is a big deal in any grade. It also happened to be a nice looking card. The bigger message is simply that while we’ve always known that interest in all things related to the T206 set is huge, it’s growing!” REA speculates that the unusual cut of the trimmed Plank may actually be related to the rarity of the card. “All of the few known Planks with Piedmont backs appear to have unusual cuts.” The offering of an extremely rare T206 Brown Lennox back example, missing from virtually all advanced collections, did not go unnoticed. “This was the first example we have ever offered, let alone in Excellent condition,” notes REA president Robert Lifson. “We had no idea what to expect.” Neither did anyone else. With a reserve of $1,000 and an estimate of “open” (indicating that not enough historical pricing information was available to allow REA to provide a meaningful estimate), a frenzy of bidding sent this extreme T206 rarity to the stratosphere with a final selling price of $29,375. “The buyer’s still recovering. But we think he’ll be OK. Seriously, the buyer has no regrets and is very happy. We can understand why. In forty years, this is the only Brown Lenox example we have ever even seen, let alone offered; it is the highest grade example known; and no T206 advertising back collection is complete without one. The price may seem crazy but that’s what they said about Wagners and Planks and Ty Cobb with Ty Cobb backs years ago. Anything related to the T206 set will always be important. It may be another 40 years before we see another.”

The T210 Old Mill of Joe Jackson (reserve $25,000; est. $50,000+), which has been gaining in stature for years, crushed all previous sales, setting a new all-time record auction selling price at $200,000. A 1933 Goudey #106 Nap Lajoie (PSA 8 NM-MT), universally recognized as one of card collecting’s most desirable rarities, realized $52,875. This very card had been purchased by the consignor just months earlier (November 2010) at auction elsewhere for $43,880. “He may have just gotten a good buy,” notes REA president Robert Lifson, “but for such a high profile card to sell for over 20% more in such a short time, this suggests that the market may just be getting stronger, especially for the most classic marquee cards. Consignors across the board were very happy but it’s naturally a very tall order to surprise them with stronger-than-expected results on big ticket items that have sold so recently elsewhere”

The 1886 Kalamazoo Bats of Jim O’Rourke had not seen the light of day since it was purchased by the consignor in 1991 for $6,050 at the famous Jim Copeland Sotheby’s auction. It realized $58,750, setting an all-time record price for this classic nineteenth-century card. “Interesting background story on this card” notes REA’s Robert Lifson. “The consignor was not a nineteenth-century card collector. He was a Mickey Mantle collector. When he consigned his cards to REA, he pulled this card out and we were very surprised. We asked how it came to be that he had this incredible card? He explained that in 1991 he wandered into the preview of the Copeland auction at Sotheby’s in New York. He happened to see this card, liked it, and on a lark decided to buy it at the auction.” He had never bought a pre-1900 card before or since and it sat in a drawer with his original receipt for the next twenty years. Lifson adds, “He was very pleased with the auction result.”

Additional extraordinary highlights: Jake Daubert’s 1919 Cincinnati Reds World Series championship pin consigned directly from Jake Daubert’s granddaughter sold for an astounding $94,000. The only other 1919 World Series championship pin known to exist in private hands that has ever been auctioned was the one presented to third baseman Heinie Groh. His family sold his award decades ago. Like many of the baseball-collecting world’s greatest treasures, it wound up in the legendary Barry Halper Collection. Buried in a mountain of rare and valuable items in the 1999 Barry Halper Collection auction conducted by Sotheby’s, it sold for $17,250 at that time.

A newly-discovered E90-1 American Caramel card of Joe Jackson, found in a small collection consigned by a non-collector, sold for an impressive $32,312. An extraordinary near-complete set of 1910 T210 Old Mill tobacco cards was broken into nine lots and realized $107,512. The most comprehensive collection of Zeenut PCL candy cards that REA has ever offered was presented in forty lots and realized an astounding total of $232,297. The complete set run 1909-1911 Obak Tobacco cards, offered by set, also set auction records, selling for a total of $79,125. “These were special sets, by far the best we’ve ever seen” notes REA’s Lifson. “Because of their strong condition, they deserved to set records. These came from the collection of legendary pioneer collector Jack Pollard, one of the all time greats in the field. I have no idea where he got them but it was great to see that all three sets were won by the same person and will remain together.”