This is one of those rare instances where the story behind the collection is as interesting as the collection itself. Begun decades ago, a father and son team shared their passion for all things Boston Red Sox and put forth a Herculean effort to collect all of the Red Sox cards and assorted issues related to the Red Sox. The collection is a veritable type collection that represents examples of almost everything that was issued featuring a Red Sox player and includes many complete team sets of the Red Sox once the team reached issues from the 1940's until the zenith of their collecting in the early 1980's. There are pins, tobacco cards, tobacco premiums, candy cards, bubble gum cards, stadium giveaways, test issues, coins, yearbooks, magazine premiums, and commemorative issues of just about anything one could imagine a Red Sox fan holding on to and so much more.
A friend of the family had some contacts with some former Red Sox and through the family contact, mailing letters to old-time players, waiting outside the ballpark, attending batting practices and other local appearances, the duo was able to amass a treasure trove autographs, letters and countless memories. Many of the cards from the late 1940's through to the 1980's feature autographs of so many of the Red Sox, including most players from the magical 1967 Impossible Dream team that lost to the Cardinals in the World Series. There are signed cards, inserts and cachets of Ted Williams, personalized signatures from Dom DiMaggio and Bobby Doerr and signed cards from players like Jackie Jensen, Jimmy Piersall, Mel Parnell, Carl Yastrzemski, Rico Petrocelli and Jim Lonborg. Many of the signed cards from this collection are currently available on eBay.
One of the more interesting autograph items is a page of signed adhesive labels that were returned with a letter by old-time Red Sox hurler Smokey Joe Wood. Wood starred for the Red Sox early in the 20th Century, winning as many as 34 games in a season (1912) before injuring his arm. Interesting in that the signatures were done decades before the sports card manufacturers began having players sign sticky labels to be affixed to baseball cards.
A sampling of the collection that represents thousands of cards spanning more than a century shows cards from American Caramel, National Caramel, various issues from the American Tobacco Company (T200, T201, T202, T205, T206, T207), Goudey, Double Play, Cracker Jack, M&P, Topps, Fleer, Nu-Card, Bowman, Chicle, Diamond Stars, World Wide Gum, Leaf, Sporting News, Delong, Swell, Sporting Life, Play Ball, strip cards, anonymous issues, assorted pins, team issues and a host of other limited editions and periodicals.
We were contacted by the son about this collection. It had been put aside in the 1980's and after his father had passed it sat idle for some time. The son finally decided that it was time to have an evaluation done and determine the value and to see if he would part with the collection. The son, who grew up with his father in the New England area, had relocated to the midwest and after some discussion, agreed to forward the collection to Just Collect for assessment. During later discussions, we learned that the man agonized about sending the collection and noted that putting it in a box and sending it to Just Collect via FedEx was far tougher emotionally than he had imagined. We contacted him immediately upon receipt and began the arduous task of cataloging, grading and evaluating the entirety of the collection.
The evaluation process, which we are normally able to complete in short order, took quite some time as the collection had so many individual Type Cards that had to be cataloged and valued. Valuing complete sets or singles is far less time consuming. After we completed our evaluation, we spoke with the son and discussed our evaluation. After some lengthy discussion, we agreed upon a purchase price and completed the sale.
Just Collect is always looking for vintage sets and collections at market leading buy prices, so if you have a collection that you are interested in selling, contact us today to and we'll provide you with a free appraisal and can make you a cash offer on the entire collection. We also travel to buy more extensive collections.