1974 Hank Aaron 715th Home Run Group
GUEST: I went to law school at Emory University in Atlanta, and every spring, a group would go to a Braves game. And it just so happened we chose the Braves game where Hank Aaron broke Babe Ruth's home run record. After he hit the home run, the ushers passed out a certificate to prove that you were there. I stapled, uh, my ticket stub to it, and a short time later, I was able to send it to Hank Aaron to get him to autograph it.
APPRAISER: I think you're the first person I've ever met that was there, actually there that day. What can you tell me about that game, about, about the atmosphere?
GUEST: It was early April. The weather was not good. I'm not sure they would have played the game but for the chance to break the record. So it was a sold-out stadium, but cold and cloudy. When he came up to bat, everybody was standing. And when he hit the ball, you knew it had a real chance.
APPRAISER: Mm-hmm.
GUEST: So you're just waiting for it to go.
APPRAISER: Mm-hmm.
GUEST: So, like, the, the emotion built as the ball went out.
APPRAISER: Yeah, waiting for it to clear that fence.
GUEST: Yep, clear that fence. After he hit the home run, the stadium basically cleared out because of the weather.
APPRAISER: So with your certificate here, you've neatly handwritten the event, as the certificates were issued blank. And then you have your ticket stub that you kept from that date. And then the nice Hank Aaron signature he was k, so kind as to sign and send back to you, there, lower center. So your certificate, can you read for me what it says?
GUEST: "I was there when Hank Aaron hit his 715th career home run to pass Babe Ruth as the top home run hitter in the history of baseball. April 8, 1974, Atlanta Stadium."
APPRAISER: And then he ended up hitting another, another 40 home runs to finish at 755 home runs for his career. And Aaron's lengthy career, he started in 1954 and played through 1976. Aaron had many obstacles to break Babe Ruth's record, including the hate mail and the death threats that he received as he was on this journey to be the home run king. And then he holds on to that record until Barry Bonds came along, dethroned him as the home run king by breaking that record on August 7 of 2007. Have you ever had it evaluated before?
GUEST: No.
APPRAISER: Okay, yeah. It's the first time I've had it looked at.
GUEST: Yeah.
APPRAISER: Well, you did, it was a wonderful thing you did to keep the stub and to send it off for an autograph. And I can tell you that that autograph is authentic, which you don't always know when you send off a request by mail.
GUEST: It's true.
APPRAISER: There are situations where there are secretarial signatures or other non-malicious, uh, copies, but in this case, I can confirm the signature is authentic.
GUEST: Great.
APPRAISER: I was surprised that there weren't more of these certificates that have come to auction, considering it was reported as a sellout, at 53,775 people. But who knows, by the time they handed the certificates out, who knows how many people were still there if the weather was, was poor?
GUEST: Yeah.
APPRAISER: I would put an estimate on that at auction at $2,000 to $2,500.
GUEST: Wow. Amazing. But I'm keeping it.
APPRAISER: I don't blame you.
$2,000 - $2,500 Auction
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Understanding Our Appraisals
Executive producer Marsha Bemko shares her tips for getting the most out of ANTIQUES ROADSHOW.
Value can change: The value of an item is dependent upon many things, including the condition of the object itself, trends in the market for that kind of object, and the location where the item will be sold. These are just some of the reasons why the answer to the question "What's it worth?" is so often "It depends."
Note the date: Take note of the date the appraisal was recorded. This information appears in the upper left corner of the page, with the label "Appraised On." Values change over time according to market forces, so the current value of the item could be higher, lower, or the same as when our expert first appraised it.
Context is key: Listen carefully. Most of our experts will give appraisal values in context. For example, you'll often hear them say what an item is worth "at auction," or "retail," or "for insurance purposes" (replacement value). Retail prices are different from wholesale prices. Often an auctioneer will talk about what she knows best: the auction market. A shop owner will usually talk about what he knows best: the retail price he'd place on the object in his shop. And though there are no hard and fast rules, an object's auction price can often be half its retail value; yet for other objects, an auction price could be higher than retail. As a rule, however, retail and insurance/replacement values are about the same.
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