ShareThisBy BABE WAXPAK
Scripps Howard News Service
Thursday, October 25, 2007
Dear Babe: My father gave me a 1962 World Series autographed team baseball with 23 signatures. "1962 World Series'' is handwritten on the ball. My father was a life insurance executive in Dallas, Texas, at the time and told me he was an acquaintance of Mickey Mantle's brother. Signatures include Yogi Berra, Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris, W. Ford, Tony Kubek, Elston Howard Bill Kunkel and Pedro Gonzalez among others. I don't know if Gonzalez and Bill Kunkel's signatures mean the ball is actually a 1963 Yankees ball even though it has "1962 World Series'' written on it. -- Bob Grimes, Pasadena, Calif.
When the Yankees showed up for spring training in 1963, they were the reigning World Series champions, having outlasted the Giants in seven games the previous October. Bobby Richardson snagged Willie McCovey's line drive to end the Yankees Game 7, 1-0 win with the tying and winning runs on base. The presence of Kunkel and Gonzalez certainly points toward the ball being signed in 1963, since that was their first year with the Yankees. "As long as the 1962-63 ball has the key sigs such as Mantle and Maris, it should be worth $1,000 to $1,500,'' said Mike Heffner, president of www.lelands.com auction house in New York.
A ball in 1962 would carry a 25 percent premium, Heffner said. David Kohler, president of www.SCPauctions.com in Mission Viejo, Calif., put a 1963 spring training Yankees baseball in the $500-$1,000 range. Mike Gutierrez, consignment director for Heritage Auctions (www.ha.com) in Dallas, said a '63 Yankees ball could go for as much as $2,500 -- if the Mantle is authentic and not a clubhouse signature.
Dear Babe: My mother-in-law collected Dodger items that included Volpe Union 76 drawings. Some are dated 1962 and others 1964. They include Don Drysdale (both years), Ron Fairly (1962), Tommie Davis ('62), Larry Sherry ('62), Tim Harkness ('62), Frank Howard ('64) and Sandy Koufax ('64). -- Joyce Scott, Highland, Calif.
The Nicholas Volpe drawings were among the most popular promotional items given away at Union 76 gasoline stations in the late 1950s and early 1960s. In addition to the 8-x-10 portraits, Volpe's artwork also appears on the jackets of a series of 45-rpm interviews with Dodgers players. As one might expect, Koufax is the most valuable. The Standard Catalog of Baseball Cards from the editors of Sports Collectors Digest lists his 1964 Volpe artwork at $35, while Beckett's Almanac of Baseball Cards has it at $15. Drysdale is next at $10-$20. The guides put the Howard from 1964 and all of your 1962 drawings in the $5-$10 range.
Dear Babe: My brother was a business partner of Leroy Jordan of the Dallas Cowboys. Jordan gave me a T-shirt signed by all the members of the 1979 Cowboys that lost the Super Bowl to the Steelers. It is still in pristine condition. Jo Ann Donner, Marietta, Ga.
T-shirts are not ideal for preserving autographs, but it sounds as if yours has stood the test of time. "The T-shirt is worth around $200 whereas a signed football would sell for five times that,'' said Mike Heffner, president of www.lelands.com auction house in New York.
Dear Babe: I have three cards that are either unlisted misprints or errors. One is a 1998 Score Fred McGriff No. 195. It is a silver foil Showcase card. The Showcase series in my catalog only goes to No. 160. Am I missing some listings in the catalog? The second card is a 1996 Fleer with Fred McGriff on the front with stats for Gene Schall on the back. The third card is a 1982 TCMA Sluggers card of Eddie Mathews with his name misspelled front and back. -- Rich Gladue, Conyers, Ga.
There is a 160-card silver Showcase set, but that's not a parallel set. Many players' cards have different numbers. The Standard Catalog of Baseball Cards from the editors of Sports Collectors Digest indicates that the cards also have a "PP'' prefix before the number. McGriff 's Showcase card is PP91. You have a silver parallel to the base set. While the Standard Catalog mentions the parallel set, it offers no values.
Most of these parallels end being worth about the same as a regular card, especially when it comes to common players and minor stars. Your McGriff card might be worth a dime. As for the other two cards, they have little value. The McGriff/Schall card is simply a wrong-back printing error. The card with Mathews spelled "Matthews'' is an uncorrected error that might be worth 50 cents to a Mathews collector or someone trying to complete that set.
(Send card questions to Babe Waxpak in care of this newspaper, PO Box 492397, Redding, CA 96049-2397 or e-mail babewaxpak(at)charter.net. If possible, include card number, year and brand or a photocopy. Please do not send cards. Babe Waxpak is a feature of The Record Searchlight in Redding, Calif.)
