The world over, sports are pretty much the great equalizer. That’s not to say all athletes are created equal. Far from it. Michael Jordan is a great example of superstardom. Naturally, each sport has their own “greatest.” The one exception would be Muhammad Ali. He might disagree. After all, as he declared many times, he was “the greatest” no matter what. Period.
The equalization comes more in the form of fans. Rich or poor, famous or not, fans of all types get to watch, cheer or just follow “their team.” Yes, some with loads of money and/or fame sit much closer. But everyone can be somewhere in the stadium or arena to root for their favorites.
Another equalizer is how athletes might give items or autographs to fans. You don’t need to be rich. Children are particularly adept at persuading players to sign something.
When I was eight or nine years old, my dad took me to a Cardinal’s ball game at the old Sportsman’s Park in St. Louis. I brought a baseball. Between innings, players would get to the locker room via a catwalk over a public concourse....
Loads of fans held up programs or other items yelling for players to give an autograph. I was among them but didn’t yell. I just stood, dwarfed among the adults holding up my ball. Amazingly, multiple players for the St. Louis Cardinals ignored the adults yet reached down and signed my ball.
As I’ve lamented many times, collectors are a quirky bunch. They want pristine perfection – or as close to it as possible. A signed Babe Ruth ball can now be worth between $20,000 to $40,000. In exceptional condition it could fetch over $60,000 – the difference being the price of a new car.
Kids might also find fortune not at a game but in packs of trading cards from the corner drugstore. In the early-1950s, a young upstart named Mickey Mantle had signed with the New York Yankees. In 1952, the rookie, got his own Topps trading card. The Yankees didn’t make the World Series that year so some card sales lagged. Eventually, hundreds of cases of the unsold 1952 cards were destroyed. In the end, only about 1,800 of the Mantle rookie cards survived. As usual, many were carelessly handled and traded by young boys. Some were even stuck in the spokes of bicycles.
Today, collectors all but kill for those Mantle rookie cards. Even a worn out card might bring upwards of $50,000. In far better condition they climb well over $200,000. Last year, a virtually pristine and beautifully centered example (many were not well centered) sold for – I’m not making this up – a mind-blowing $12.6 million. That’s for one small, thin piece of colorfully printed cardboard.
Youngsters lucky enough to work for sports teams are in a particularly good position to obtain memorabilia. 25 years ago, after a playoff game in 1998, basketball great Michael Jordan misplaced his jacket. The next day, a young boy working for the team found it and returned it to the grateful player. Jordan was so appreciative he gave the young boy his pair of game-played Jordan XIII shoes. He even autographed each shoe with a silver marker. They are recognized as the only such pair in existence.
A few weeks ago, those shoes were put up for auction. When the hammer fell, the shoes had been sold for a whopping $2.6 million. The boy was lucky. Right place, right time, right thing to do.
Just as in sports, luck and timing has a lot to do with collectibles. Many items continue to hide on closet shelves or in basement boxes waiting for some fortunate individual to find them. Best of luck.
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