A Ted Williams autographed baseball from Phil Duda’s collection.
The next time you’re in the market for a pricy bit of nostalgic sporting history and the wife grumbles something about “boys and their toys,” take to her a sports memorabilia store or auction and suggest she hush up.
Whether it is a baseball pennant that brings back vivid memories of days spent at Fenway with Dad or the signed bat of a former, or soon-to-be, all-star player, or even a duck decoy from renowned East Harwich carver Elmer Crowell, the purchases of today could well end up being an investment in the future.
And it’s not just baseball – or even professional sports, for that matter. Vintage equipment from all manner of the sporting life is proving a red-hot market commodity as boomers with a little extra coin and a lot of fond memories drive up the market.
Dave Colombo, owner of the Roadhouse Café in Hyannis, is a classic example of someone who purchases vintage sports memorabilia for fun, but also with an eye on getting a good value and possibly realizing an increase in value in the future.
His restaurant, especially the lounge area, has whimsical vintage finds that run the gamut from a hand-colored sepia photograph of a gloveless boxer, to faded pennants from both the Boston Red Sox and the then-Boston Patriots, sailing flags from Harvard and Yale, and many items of local interest.
One of Colombo’s favorite items is an oval sepia photograph of a baseball player, in an ornate frame with bowed glass. He paid $600 for it, and two days later someone offered him $1,000. He didn’t accept the offer, but still that would not have been a bad potential profit on his investment.
Colombo has fun with his collection. Unlike many of the other antiques in this antique- filled eatery, the sports memorabilia is something he describes as a “very emotional bond.”
In his home he displays an ever-growing collection of anything he can find from the 1967 Red Sox, which he refers to as “the Impossible Dream year.”
“They finished in ninth place in 1966, and in ’67 they won the pennant on the final day of the season and then lost in the seventh game of the World Series,” says Colombo, adding, “That’s the year that made Boston Red Sox baseball what is it. It created the mania.”
Columbo’s assortment of 1967 Sox mementos is not just a matter of collecting, because Colombo knows the value of what he has; it’s also a matter of the personal memories tied to that particular season.
“I remember at 11 years old, upstairs in bed I was supposed to be sleeping, and I was listening to the Red Sox pennant games under my sheets on my transistor radio,” he says.
As is the case with so many antique markets, it’s just that type of emotional connection that can drive up the prices of certain segments, making these things not just fun to have around, but possibly a sound investment given today’s market volatility.
Phil Duda, of Dennis, just loves sports memorabilia. A peek into his garage more than confirms his passion. Stacks and stacks of baseball cards are piled along one wall and up the stairs in his study are even more items.
Duda has been collecting for more than 40 years. He picks up fun things – programs, pins, signed bats and balls – often as part of a large group of items from estate sales, culls out the things he’ll keep, and then sells the remainder on eBay. Duda will often have as many as 30 items on sale at a time on the popular auction website.
“If you approach the market to make money, it’s the old things, cards, whatever,” says Duda. “New stuff, they make millions of the same thing, and it’s the same old story – if you can’t have it, you want it.”
Some of the more notable items in his collection include signed baseballs from both Mickey Mantle and Ted Williams. Both were purchased as part of collections, and Duda estimates their current value at around $300 each.
Because of his fame and because he was not big on signing autographs, anything with Babe Ruth’s signature would draw a much higher price. Duda estimates that a baseball signed by him would go for between $5K and $7K.
Buying signed items from the baseball players of today, with hopes of realizing a profit tomorrow, can be tricky business. Duda explains, “When Cal Ripken goes to a show and signs balls, maybe for $30K for an afternoon, he’ll sign a lot of balls in a lifetime.”
As is the case with any antique collecting, current and future value will depend on the scarcity of an item as well as its condition. Proving the provenance of something also helps with the value. Duda has a couple of brightly colored paintings that were created for use in magazines, long before the days of digital photography. He was fortunate enough to purchase a magazine that used one of those original paintings as a full-page image and, he says, “Having the two makes it easier to sell.”
It’s not just professional sports memorabilia that can draw the big coin on eBay or at auction houses.
Eldred’s Auction House, in Dennis, held an auction this summer of sporting items, including nearly 70 decoys by A. Elmer Crowell. Estimates noted in the auction’s catalogue show prices for many decoys of lesser-known carvers for as little as $100. Yet for Crowell’s pieces, estimates started at over a thousand – with most well into the thousands. High estimates on several Crowell pieces for this auction went as high as $35K.
It was an Elmer Crowell decoy that garnered a record bid of $830K (that’s correct, more than $800,000) at an auction in Maryland. Many of his pieces sold under the hammer that day went for well into six figures. His work is internationally renowned, and prices show absolutely no sign of slowing down.
Duda advises the beginning collector to educate himself, and if you’re considering a major purchase and are unsure of its authenticity, have it authenticated. Reputable people who do this often advertise in sports memorabilia magazines, and Duda estimates the cost for authentication at between $50 and $75 per item.
The guidelines for buying any type of sports memorabilia are really no different than for purchasing antiques: the item needs to be in good condition and in its original condition; it should be rare; establishing the item’s provenance doesn’t hurt; and, perhaps most of all, purchase items you can enjoy while you own them.
The next time you’re in the market for a pricy bit of nostalgic sporting history and the wife grumbles something about “boys and their toys,” take to her a sports memorabilia store or auction and suggest she hush up.
in an ornate frame with bowed glass. He paid $600 for it, and two days later someone offered him $1,000. He didn’t accept the offer, but still that would not have been a bad potential profit on his investment.
Because of his fame and because he was not big on signing autographs, anything with Babe Ruth’s signature would draw a much higher price. Duda estimates that a baseball signed by him would go for between $5K and $7K.