University Daily Kansan / Wednesday Aug. 23, 1989
7C
Baseball card firm bats a thousand in auction of company memorabilia
The Associated Press
NEW YORK — What would you swap for a 1933 Mickey Mantle original? The Marriott Corp. paid $110,000 for one this weekend as the Topps Company emptied its archives and put 85 years worth of rare cards, proofs and pictures on the auction block.
A cardboard goldmine
"Collection fever is at an all-time high. There was tremendous stuff in our files which had never been seen." Topps spokesman Norman Liss said, explaining the company's decision to have the auction.
The No. 1 priced lot involved No. 7 in Yankees pinstripes, an original 1963 painting of Mantle used to create his cards for that season. The Marriott Corp. had a winning bid of $110,000, Liss said. The painting had been expected to bring $50,000.
The artwork for Willie Mays from that year went for $80,000 to Marvel's the Jackie Robinson painting brought $71,000 from an uncle-afflicted biddder.
"What we really wanted was Mantle and Mays together. Our must-buys were Mantle and Mays," Roger Conner of Married said.
The hotel chain intends to show the paintings around the country for a year, resell them and donate the proceeds to charity. Conner said.
Source: Baseball Card Price Guide
KANSAN graphic
*Once valuable only as children's trading stock, cards today are big business.
*In 1887, baseball cards were introduced in cigarette packages to stimulate tobacco sales. The zeal with which U.S. youngsters pursued their fathers, uncles and neighbors for the cards prompted the nation's confectioners to begin using the cards by the 1920s.
*The Honus Wagner card pictured at the left was inserted into cigarette packs around 1910. Known as the "King of Baseball Cards," the card is valued at $25,000.
Paintings of Whitey Ford ($32,000),
Bob Feller ($30,000) and Roy Campanella
($15,000) were sold to the Rarities Group of Mass., a collectibles company. Liss said 1953 was the only year Topps used portraits instead of photos for its cards.
He did take home a nice consolation prize: an autographed Mickey Murielle shirt presented to the Yankees was retired. The price was $30,000.
"I really wanted to buy them all, but we wound up as underbiddier on a lot of them. It's tough to bid against Maririot," said John Rue, Rarities sports memorabilia buver.
The two-day sale marks the 51st anniversary of Topps, the Brooklyn-based company that helped make the bubble gum card a U.S. institution. The auction was intended to clear about 75 percent of the company's archival holdings and collect an estimated $1 million.
Unique lots up for auction included other original artwork and pictures used to create the cards, uncut sheets of baseball cards containing 60 to 120 cards, and several collector's item cards with wrong team or player names.
ner, famed for his frequent changes of managers, is responsible for several of the collector's items. Unreleased Yankees team cards with managers Billy Martin (1980) and Dick Howser (1981) were up for bid. Both managers were driven from the dugout by the boss before the season started.
Also for sale was correspondence between Topps and recent Hall of Fame inductees Johnny Bench and Carl Vartzsemi skim about their cards. Topps card contracts by Mays and Mantle also were sold.
Yankees owner George Steinbren
Strips of 60 cards were for anywhere from $250 to $2,750 in early bidding among an unusual auction crowd that opted for T-shirts and baseball caps rather than suits or ties. Several in the crowd chomped hot dogs during the bidding, which took place in a Manhattan gym.
"This is my first one of these," said Dom Fallucci of Manhattan, N.Y., a card collector who was stunned by the escalating prices.
"I bid on one card, and then it went to $500, then $600. I put my hand back in my pocket," Fallucci said. He left the auction with "the doughnut hole — zero. I got a bagel and coffee down the street, that it's."
Topps has agreed to donate part of its earnings to three charities: the Children's Museum of New York, the Special Olympics and the Baseball Alumni Team.
The auction was scheduled to continue Sunday, football and basketball card memorabilia going on the block along with pen and ink drawings from the Bazaock "Joe cartoons and original artwork from "E.T.". "Star Wars" and "Indiana Jones" cards.
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