Jackie Robinson Archive, ca. 1938
GUEST: When my dad was in high school in Los Angeles, he was friends with Jackie Robinson. And I have a group of letters and an image of Jackie playing UCLA football. It's kind of personal, but it's really great historically, too.
APPRAISER: Absolutely. We've got letters from the late 1930s. Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in 1947. We're talking about letters that predates that significantly. He was for all intents and purposes a kid-- he was a teenager.
GUEST: Right.
APPRAISER: Who eventually went on to spark one of the most significant events in sports history. I personally have not encountered a Jackie Robinson handwritten letter collection or item from this young. Tell us about the content.
GUEST: Well, the content in these letters are personal, more like a friend writing to a friend instead of, like, a pen pal, which I found really interesting. He talks about how the UCLA curriculum is more difficult than his junior college, his JC stuff, and he was having trouble adjusting.
APPRAISER: Right, he talks about how he chose UCLA over Oregon. He talks about seeking your dad out while he was in L.A., because he really wanted to see him, his buddy. He invites your father to his wedding. He says, "Hey, I'm glad you found a church-- I'm looking for one, too." These are personal to Jackie Robinson. Nothing to do with baseball, nothing to do with sports. This comes from a time where his scholastic achievement was more important to him than, than the things we know he's famous for.
GUEST: Right.
APPRAISER: And to me, that's why this is significant. Here we see a 1938 letter, and the back he signs, "Jackie Robinson." A 19-year-old Jackie Robinson signature. I've never seen one that young.
GUEST: Wow.
APPRAISER: It's truly amazing. Have you had this appraised?
GUEST: I haven't had it appraised. It's actually... I knew about it a little bit before my dad passed away, but then I inherited his scrapbook. And this is actually a graduation card I didn't even know I had, because it was separate in the album from all the Jackie stuff.
APPRAISER: Sure.
GUEST: And I was just looking, and I was like, "Holy smokes, here's another one."
APPRAISER: Well, what I can tell you is this-- at auction, we can see this fetching anywhere between $15,000 and $20,000.
GUEST (laughing): Whoa! Really?
APPRAISER: And we're talking about the collection. I think it would... don't separate these items.
GUEST: Oh, no, no, no, right? Holy... that's... that's pretty cool. I mean, my dad would be really proud right now, because, you know, he considered him a pretty tight friend. There you go, Dad. (chuckles)
$15,000 - $20,000 Auction
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Understanding Our Appraisals
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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."
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