Auction Block

I’m not much of a buyer, but I do like to keep an eye on the baseball memorabilia market, a project undertaken with a combination of curiosity, envy, bemusement, and sheer stupefaction. (A couple of years ago I wrote a piece on Jefferson R. Burdick, the grandfather of all baseball card collectors, that you can read here.) What appeals most, of course, are the wonderful, museum quality artifacts often to be found, like the 1915 Cracker Jack poster you see above, now up for bid on the REA website (minimum bid: $25,000). A few of the other items that caught my eye, or at least my attention:

The Item I most covet, a 1911 Turkey Red cabinet card of Christy Mathewson.

I just loved these die cuts of the New York Giants.

Does anyone really need a Mr. Coffee autographed by Joe D?

For the morbid: Thurman Munson’s pilot’s license. Ick.

Is there anything more beautiful than Victorian typography?

Incongruity to the point of absurdity: Thomas Kinkade paints Yankee Stadium.

Alas, no Rubens.