Extraordinary Find: Walter Johnson, Babe Ruth & Honus Wagner-signed Baseballs
HOST: And now, sports memorabilia expert Leila Dunbar pitches a story of two baseballs.
APPRAISER: On the ANTIQUES ROADSHOW, we've been very lucky to get two fabulous, signed baseballs by Hall of Fame greats. What did these baseballs have in common, other than they had some Hall of famers on them? Well, they're among the best examples of these signed baseballs ever found.
HOST: One Leila found in Filoli in 2022, after it had stayed tucked away in storage for over a decade.
APPRAISER: Walter Johnson was known as the Big Train, because he had this blazing fastball. And in fact, when he debuted as a rookie, way back in the early 1900s, Ty Cobb said that his fastball hissed like danger. Walter Johnson was probably the best pitcher of the 20th century. He pitched for the Washington Senators for 21 seasons. They only won one world championship in 1924, and he was largely responsible for it. He is the Babe Ruth of pitching, and that's why a collector would want to have his signature on a baseball. I've seen a number of Johnson-signed baseballs over the years, but they all tend to be a bit scuffed up. Normally, a Johnson baseball would sell for between $5,000 and $15,000, but this one looked like it just came out of storage and been signed yesterday. It was magnificent. It was the best-known example of its type. I would put an auction estimate of $60,000 to $80,000.
GUEST: Oh, my God. (shocked chuckle) I cannot believe that. That is crazy.
APPRAISER: I believe this would sell for at least $100,000.
GUEST: Oh, my gosh. That is insane. (soft chuckle) It's just insane. Well, I'm thrilled, obviously. (laughing): Just shaking. That is crazy, thank you so much.
APRRAISER: A year later, the segment ran on ANTIQUES ROADSHOW in 2023. And I got a call, and the owner asked if I could help her with selling the ball. She chose an auction house, Lelands, to sell it through, and they put the auction estimate, as you can imagine, at $60,000 to $80,000. On the last day of the sale, I remember looking at it, and it was-- I think, at that time, about $65,000. And I thought, "Well, this is great. "This is going to be in line with what I had appraised it for." The next morning, I wake up, I look at the results, and I nearly fell over when I saw that it sold for $315,000. So I knew the owner was very pleased, the auction house was very pleased, and I was very pleased as well. 2023, shortly after the sale of the Walter Johnson-signed baseball, I got a call from another guest, a gentleman named Craig, who had actually been to ROADSHOW in 2014, in West Virginia. And he had brought in a baseball that had been signed by Babe Ruth, Honus Wagner, Al Simmons, and George Earnshaw.
GUEST: I was out in the mid-'90s visiting my grandmother, introducing her to her latest grandson, and she asked me if I still played baseball, and I said I did. She went into the back room, we heard some drawers opening and closing. She came back, she tossed me the ball, and I looked at it, and I was-- I couldn't believe what I was seeing. I asked my mom, "Is this real?" And she said, "I've never seen it before." So, uh, my grandfather actually met these individuals uh, in the mid-'30s, and it's been sitting in a drawer ever since.
APPRAISER: We believe that this ball was signed in 1933.
GUEST: Okay.
APPRAISER: By Babe Ruth.
GUEST: Okay.
APPRAISER: And also by Hall of Famer Honus Wagner and Al Simmons. Honus Wagner, the great shortstop for the Pittsburgh Pirates.
GUEST: Right.
APPRAISER: Al Simmons, great outfielder for the Athletics. Like the Walter Johnson-signed baseball, it was spectacular. The signatures were absolutely fantastic. So much so that when the ROADSHOW reran the segment, I actually increased the value to $85,000. When Craig called, he had seen both the revised segment and the Johnson auction. And at that time, as you might imagine, he was interested in selling the Ruth, Wagner, Simmons, and Earnshaw-signed baseball. I told him at the time that he should speak with Lelands, because they had done so well with the Walter Johnson-signed baseball, and the baseball ended up selling for just over $100,000. People always ask me, "How do you get value in a signed baseball? Why are these baseballs selling for much more money than, say, a Mickey Mantle-signed baseball also a great Hall of Famer of his era. Or a Joe DiMaggio?" Well, the answer is actually very simple. It's a matter of eras. In the 1970s, the baseball market grew dramatically because it was the era of the advent of signing shows and baseball card shows. So this gave retired Hall of Famers like Mantle and DiMaggio and Mays and soon-to-be-retired Aaron and Ted Williams an opportunity to go to shows, sign their name, and make a lot of money, often in cash. Your Hall of Famers who passed away well before the era of the signing shows, so their baseballs are in far fewer supply. You can sum it up in one slightly crude phrase-- "deader is better" when it comes to value. (chuckles)
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episode
Extraordinary Finds 3
Revisit remarkable ROADSHOW finds whose stories didn’t stop even after we yelled "Cut!"
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.
Verbal approximations: The values given by the experts on ANTIQUES ROADSHOW are considered "verbal approximations of value." Technically, an "appraisal" is a legal document, generally for insurance purposes, written by a qualified expert and paid for by the owner of the item. An appraisal usually involves an extensive amount of research to establish authenticity, provenance, composition, method of construction, and other important attributes of a particular object.
Opinion of value: As with all appraisals, the verbal approximations of value given at ROADSHOW events are our experts' opinions formed from their knowledge of antiques and collectibles, market trends, and other factors. Although our valuations are based on research and experience, opinions can, and sometimes do, vary among experts.
Appraiser affiliations: Finally, the affiliation of the appraiser may have changed since the appraisal was recorded. To see current contact information for an appraiser in the ROADSHOW Archive, click on the link below the appraiser's picture. Our Appraiser Index also contains a complete list of active ROADSHOW appraisers and their contact details and biographies.
