dandelatorre
Newbie
- Feb 28, 2014
- 3
- 0
- Primary Interest:
- All Treasure Hunting
I found a coin listed as 'unidentified', but 'very old'. It cost me a hundred bucks, and I had no idea what it was. I put a picture of it on a coin forum site trying to find out ANY info on it. Found out it was extremely rare, but no where was I able to find a value; no values in Standard World Coin Catalogs, and no auction records anywhere in World (and I contacted many auction Houses).
About two months later a man from Sweden emails me about this special collection he has, and that it is complete except for one coin, mine. He said he saw it on that coin forum site, and offered me seven times the amount I paid, so I took the deal. Still have no idea of its real value.
The second find was better, much better. I'm not into Baseball or Baseball Collectibles, but if I can see a very short-term profit in turning something, I'll go for it. I was passing a BB Card Shop in a Roswell, GA Mall and spotted an odd looking baseball in a glass case in their window display. I went inside. It had Red & Blue threads, it said 'Official REACH Baseball' on it, and had many autographs. It had a 3" X 5" index card that said 'famous players of the 1930's. I, new nothing about baseball, but I did recognize two signatures, 'Babe Ruth' and 'Lou Gehrig'.
After going to the Library and checking out what their signatures were worth, I gave the manager the $1,500 for the ball (not realizing all the condition and all the many factors that were involved at coming to autograph values). Anyway, a real long story (there was a book published on this story), the ball turned out to be the ONLY surviving Official Reach Baseball 'USED' in the second All-Star game ever played (1934), and was signed by ALL the American League members who played, and some that didn't. It's provenance became the most thoroughly examined and documented of any item from the Golden Age of Baseball, and it has First-hand authentication by the winning pitcher of that game, Mr. Mel Harder, who became a friend of mine until his death.
Oh yeah! The ball was appraised at upwards of $1,000,000.00 in 1992. I kept it away from the hands of unscrupulous members of the BB Collectible industry for 16 years (it was even stolen out of the Babe Ruth Museum at one time), but I eventually fell on hard times, illness in Family, and had to trust one of their Auction Houses. A very bad ending. Treasure found and lost.
About two months later a man from Sweden emails me about this special collection he has, and that it is complete except for one coin, mine. He said he saw it on that coin forum site, and offered me seven times the amount I paid, so I took the deal. Still have no idea of its real value.
The second find was better, much better. I'm not into Baseball or Baseball Collectibles, but if I can see a very short-term profit in turning something, I'll go for it. I was passing a BB Card Shop in a Roswell, GA Mall and spotted an odd looking baseball in a glass case in their window display. I went inside. It had Red & Blue threads, it said 'Official REACH Baseball' on it, and had many autographs. It had a 3" X 5" index card that said 'famous players of the 1930's. I, new nothing about baseball, but I did recognize two signatures, 'Babe Ruth' and 'Lou Gehrig'.
After going to the Library and checking out what their signatures were worth, I gave the manager the $1,500 for the ball (not realizing all the condition and all the many factors that were involved at coming to autograph values). Anyway, a real long story (there was a book published on this story), the ball turned out to be the ONLY surviving Official Reach Baseball 'USED' in the second All-Star game ever played (1934), and was signed by ALL the American League members who played, and some that didn't. It's provenance became the most thoroughly examined and documented of any item from the Golden Age of Baseball, and it has First-hand authentication by the winning pitcher of that game, Mr. Mel Harder, who became a friend of mine until his death.
Oh yeah! The ball was appraised at upwards of $1,000,000.00 in 1992. I kept it away from the hands of unscrupulous members of the BB Collectible industry for 16 years (it was even stolen out of the Babe Ruth Museum at one time), but I eventually fell on hard times, illness in Family, and had to trust one of their Auction Houses. A very bad ending. Treasure found and lost.
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