Selling a rare baseball

http://cgi.ebay.com/MEL-OTT-SINGLE-SIGNED-BASEBALL-JSA-LOA-/250697120386?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3a5eb67a82

$19K for a personalized ball?

No way does he get that much. I know dealers who have gotten Cobb or Ruth for half that.

 

Pete Rose was doing a meet-and-greet at a local casino here years ago. My dad was a big Phillies fan, so I asked him to autograph a baseball card. It was a worthless card, from one of those K-Mart All-Star packs they put out in the 80s.
He looked at me with a weird, almost agonized expression, and said, "You know that's going to lower the value, right?"

 

did you reply,'wanna bet on that'

 

If you got money, they will look at it. Call them: 1-888-4JSPENCE.

And there is no way that Ott ball goes for 19k. That is the same ball in the auction link above with a starting bid of $1k.

 

Maybe that is because Pete Rose's autograph is nearly worthless. He does an autograph show at least once a weekend during baseball season. Him and Steve Garvey it seems like are everywhere.

 

Try to figure out as many names as possible on the ball so you can get a better idea of the year. It would be worth more if it were one of the years they did well as a team. They won the series in 33 and made it to the series in 36 and 37. So those would obviously be worth a little more. Then check ebay. It is one of the best gauges of what people are currently paying for items. But a Mel Ott auto by itself is worth a lot anyways. Post some pictures if you can.

 

If this Spence is the Mel Ott expert he appears to be, he'll know who the other players are.

I have a ball signed by the 1961 Yankees. Every one of them. My grandfather worked with the Yankees from the late 1940s until 1986 when he retired. As a kid whenever we visited them, we had clubhouse access and seats behind the dugout.

The ball has been authenticated and is in a safety deposit box. I don't want to ever sell it, but if I really had to I would to put my kids through college or something like that. I have a ball signed by Dimaggio and Mantle during Mantle's rookie year. It's also in the deposit box with about 10 other baseballs and about $50K worth of baseball cards.

 

There was a time when it was impossible to find a baseball that hadn't been signed by Bob Feller.

 

Michael, I've been studying the pictures you've sent me, and I figured eight, possibly nine names thus far.

When you hop on AIM, I'll let you know who they are, but I'm going to try and figure out more.