WorthPoint » Babe Ruth

Market for A-Rod Collectibles Shrinks

Eric Brantner — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 19:25:57 +0000

Steroids impacting the world of sports collectibles is nothing new. Just look at the lack of demand for (and value of) Mark McGwire collectibles. Same thing goes for Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa and even Roger Clemens. Simply put, people aren’t going to buy collectibles from athletes with tainted numbers.

Alex Rodriguez, Yankees third baseman

Of course, the most recent admission of steroids comes from Alex Rodriguez. This admission is particularly damaging to baseball and sports collectibles as many fans viewed A-Rod as the last great hope to break Bonds’ home-run record legitimately. A-Rod was, in many ways, the poster child for clean, steroids-free success in baseball.

Until last week.

Even though the results were from five years ago, the fact that A-Rod took steroids is a crucial blow to the sport. No longer does baseball have that hope that the home-run record will be taken back by a clean player. More importantly, this latest steroids admission just further sullies an entire era of players. Unless evidence comes up to the contrary, people are going to cast a skeptical eye toward any player from this period, and that’s the biggest shame of it all.

So, what does this mean for A-Rod’s collectibles?

If history is any indication, the demand for A-Rod’s memorabilia is going to decline drastically. The reasons for this are simple.

1. Parents aren’t going to spend hundreds of dollars on collectibles of a known steroids user for their kids.

2. A-Rod likely won’t get into the Hall of Fame, drastically reducing the value of his collectibles.

3. A-Rod’s numbers are tainted and meaningless. In short, they no longer add value to collectibles.

4. Many sports memorabilia shop owners refuse to carry pieces of known steroids users.

Just do a quick check on eBay to see how collectors are responding to this. Some 795 A-Rod pieces are up for sale, and most of them are sitting there with no bids or interest.

Alex Rodriguez 1994 Foxes card

Another A-Rod Foxes car

Two cards from A-Rod’s days on the minor-league Appleton (Wis.) Foxes. To learn about the one on the left, click here. For the one on the right, click here.

And it’s not just because fans are holding some high moral ground. It’s because collectibles from the steroid age are more and more proving to be poor investments.

That’s why I think A-Rod’s positive test doesn’t just affect him—it affects this entire era. Fans and collectors are starting to see how widespread the problem of steroids is/was, and they’re going to respond accordingly.

How will they respond? By buying collectibles from the pre-1980s. Players like Nolan Ryan, Sandy Koufax, Roger Maris, Lou Gehrig, Babe Ruth and many others will now be held in even greater regard as the value of the numbers they put up and of their collectibles sharply increases as the modern era takes yet another black eye.

So, if you’re looking to make an investment, look to the past. Until this steroids issue gets taken care of once and for all, I wouldn’t feel comfortable sinking my money into any player from recent times.

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Sultan of Swat Collectibles: As Great as the Babe

Sandra Lee Stuart — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 23:44:41 +0000

Every once in a while, an athlete comes along who transcends his or her sport. These precious few are bigger than the game, and they become the embodiment of their country. People search incessantly for their collectibles.

Babe Ruth was one of these athletes. Even today, more than 70 years after he last set foot on the baseball diamond, everyone knows his name. And it’s not just sports fans who appreciate Babe Ruth—Americans from all walks of life recognize him as the legend he is.

Ruth is arguably the most dominant player in the history of baseball. He holds too many records for me to list here in this little blog. In short, Babe Ruth is a once-in-a-lifetime baseball player the likes of which may never be seen again.

As the result of his groundbreaking career, the market for Babe Ruth collectibles is at an all-time high. So with the last game having been played in Yankee Stadium, the House that Ruth Built, let’s look at a few of the most interesting (and valuable) Babe Ruth collectibles.

• Babe Ruth Game-Used Jersey—Authentic Babe Ruth memorabilia is valuable. Period. An authentic game-used jersey is even more valuable. Antique game-used jerseys like this are fairly rare because players were only issued a few jerseys per season. Recently, a 1933 Babe Ruth Yankees pinstripe jersey sold at auction for more than $650,000. The fabric of this jersey showed slight wear and tear, which I think actually enhanced the appeal of this collectible. What I wouldn’t do to have a Babe Ruth game-used jersey

• Babe Ruth Autographed Baseball—Autographed baseballs from Babe Ruth aren’t exactly the rarest collectibles. Babe was known as a generous guy who always signed autographs for his fans. That being said, it’s still an antique autographed-ball from the greatest baseball player of all time. So, it’s highly desirable and valuable. These pieces of memorabilia routinely fetch more than $20,000 at auctions throughout the country.

• Babe Ruth Signed Game-Used Bat—Just the other day, WorthPoint’s very own Howard Lau scored a rare piece of Babe Ruth memorabilia at an auction. The collectible was a Babe Ruth game-used bat that was signed for a Broadway star. To say this collectible is rare is an understatement, but Howard was very low key about his find. I guess that’s how it is when you own one of the premier sports memorabilia shops in Houston, but I know I’d be bouncing off the walls if I had landed that collectibles!

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Antiques Alamo sword, bad guy’s briefcase & collectibles, rare bills not for deposit

Sandra Lee Stuart — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 18:04:43 +0000

In collectibles, antiques and art news, an Alamo sword and the personal effects of a notorious outlaw hit the auction block, a bank returns valuable rare bills to its customer, a stolen Renaissance masterpiece is sold and a distinctive Babe Ruth home-run ball goes up for sale for the first time.

Wild West Antiques and Militaria

A 19th-century saber linked to the historic Battle of the Alamo and the subsequent Battle of San Jacinto was a star at the Frontier Times Western Auction in San Antonio, Texas, last week. The Battle of the Alamo was a pivotal low point in Texas history during what was called the Texas Revolution when Mexican troops defeated a cavalry of American soldiers. Ben Templeton, who traces his own family roots to pioneer times, found the sword on his property in Garfield, Texas, an area, according to the blog History Hunters International , was the campsite of the Mexican army.

Collectibles belonging to gunman John Wesley Hardin also went under the hammer at the Western Auction. The outlaw’s artifacts included his briefcase containing his business card, a copy of his autobiography, a hand-tinted photograph of him, “a stage coach trunk covered in cowhide with his initials,” the shotgun that ended his life and an 1895 arrest warrant signed by the lawman who did him in.

Other items of interest in the sale included a Confederate Civil War rifle, a collection of gunfighter paintings, a Bowie knife collection, a rare Colt .45, a Dalton Gang rifle and a gun rig that belonged to a Roosevelt Rough Rider.

Something Was Wrong, Bank Gives Back Money

CoinLink had a feel-good collectibles story recently. Two $1,000 bills attracted the attention of a bank CEO after a customer brought in the rare 1934 Federal Reserve notes to make a deposit. No one in the Indiana bank had ever seen $1,000 bills—little wonder since the U.S. government ceased making them in 1969—but they were accepted for deposit, and the customer went on her way. After the notes came to the attention of the CEO, American Savings Bank called its elderly customer back in to retrieve the rare bills and suggested she sell them for a higher value as collectibles. The woman said a relative had given her the notes many years before.

16th-century Stolen Artwork at Auction

Flemish Renaissance artist Ambrosius Benson painted religious works in Spain, including a celebrated altarpiece in Segovia and works that hang in Madrid’s Prado Museum, London’s National Gallery and New York’s Metropolitan Museum. So it is no wonder that the Spanish Ministry of Culture hoped to prevent London Sotheby’s recent sale of the triptych, “Lamentation of Christ,” to an unknown buyer, as it is the last known Benson work in private hands. According to Typically Spanish , the piece was stolen in 1913 and sold several times since. ArtDaily reports that because of the previous sales, both Sotheby’s and the Spanish Ministry of Culture announced the auction was legal. The triptych went for more than $2.3 million.

Babe Ruth Six-Figure Ball

On May 25, 1935, Babe Ruth hit the last homers of his career—three of them—in the same game. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports that the first of those home-run balls was caught by baseball fan Emmett Cavanaugh during the first inning of the game at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh where the Pittsburgh Pirates played Ruth’s Boston Braves. Cavanaugh caught up with the Babe at his hotel after the game and asked him to sign the ball. The fan held on to his lucky catch for the rest of his life. His family put the ball, along with documentation for provenance from Hunt Auctions, up for grabs at the All-Star FanFest collectibles auction held in New York on July 15. It was expected to sell for upward of $200,000.