BIDDEFORD — It’s the middle of winter, but baseball was on the brain in Biddeford on Wednesday evening. There wasn’t a game to be played, but competition was fierce, nonetheless.
An extensive, rare collection of baseball memorabilia was up for auction at Saco River Auction Co. in the Pepperell Mill, with more than 400 items from a larger of collection up for grabs on Wednesday.
Saco River auctioneer Floyd Hartford called the collection “probably one of the biggest in the United States as far as rarity, scarcity.”
The collection has been named the Portland Trove by Saco River, after three brothers from Portland put the items that belonged to their grandfather up for auction.
The majority of the items are T-206 tobacco cards from 1909-11. Included in the collection was a mistake card featuring Kid Elberfeld that fetched $4,900. The back of the card featured both the Tolstoi and Piedmont tobacco companies due to a printing error, and is quite rare.
Hartford said the breadth of the collection can be traced to the original owner’s two habits: tobacco and collecting baseball cards.
The first card of the auction, a 1909 El Principe De Gales-backed John McGraw card, was sold for $950. Items sold for as low as $50, but most went for anywhere from $150 to $500. Others, such as cards featuring Baseball Hall of Famer Ty Cobb or multi-packs of Playball cards, ventured toward the haul that the McGraw card warranted.
“What’s more American than baseball?” Hartford quipped when talking about the collection and the attention it is receiving from some of the biggest collectors in the country.
About two dozen collectors were in attendance at the auction house Wednesday, with others bidding online and over the phone.
In addition to the numerous T-206 cards, other items of note were Dave Bancroft’s 1971 Baseball Hall of Fame ring and 48 Old Judge N173 glass negatives. The ring is one of just two produced ”“ one goes to the player, the other to the Hall of Fame ”“ for Bancroft, a shortstop for the Philadelphia Phillies, New York Giants, Brooklyn Robins and Boston Braves from 1915-30.
The glass negatives are a rare item, as Hartford said there are just 31 others in the world that are known to be in existence. Hartford said some collectors have been searching for the negatives for 25 years.
Items with a local tie were five Indian Moccasin blanks autographed by professional athletes. The blanks were originally sent to Mickey Mantle, Ted Williams, Jim Thorpe, Dom DiMaggio and Wilt Chamberlain by a Penobscot chief from Wells for the athletes to trace their own feet so the chief could make them customized pairs of moccasins. The blank signed by Thorpe ”“ known more for football than baseball ”“ fetched the highest price of the quintet at $325.
The auction Wednesday was just the first for the collection. Another auction scheduled for Wednesday, Feb. 18 will sell off even more items.
— Sports Staff Writer Wil Kramlich can be contacted at 282-1535, ext. 323 or sports@journaltribune.com. Follow him on Twitter @WilTalkSports.
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