re: Calling All OT Baseball Memorabilia Experts

First steps to take as I have several MM memorabilia.

1. Get it insured first and foremost
2. Get it authenticated by a reputable firm. Sotheby’s or the like.

Great find and wishing you well in your journey

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It has a Mickey Mantle rookie autograph If authenticated, it's worth a damn fortune.

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This+++++

Thanks guys! I appreciate the feedback.

I don’t know what I’m going to do yet. Would like to get it authenticated but like the other poster said, I don’t want to drop it in the mail.

I will be in Houston come the Holidays, maybe I can get it authenticated there in person.

Final bid from an authenticated 1951 Yanks ball was $3630 at Goldinauctions.

I collect signed baseballs and that one looks good for the time period. Most of this has already been said but i'll offer my $0.02-There are printed souvenir baseballs but that would have the manager and dimaggio and wouldnt have the kids handwriting. Also the ink would look more uniform and signatures wouldnt overlap on a stamped ball. A forged ball likely wouldnt have the kids handwriting either. As somebody said before 1951 was Mantle's rookie year and thats how his early signature looks, so a signed ball from the era is pretty cool. I think 51 was the only year Mantle and Dimaggio played together so wouldve been cool to have them both on a team ball.

One thing that might be a bummer is if some of the signatures (Mantle) are deemed clubhouse or secretarial. That would hurt the value although not as much as a forgery. That means the signature was added by someone else at the time period but not meant to be nefarious. Still would have some value although not as much depending on which ones. I have a 61 yankees ball with a real Maris and others but clubhouse Mantle. But i doubt Mantle was getting the star treatment as much that early in his career. It was probably Dimaggio that was getting swamped too much to sign every team ball in 51.

Billy Martin is another good signature to have and i see it on there as well as the others listed. I dont see Whitey Ford which wouldve been nice. He was probably still signing "Ed" Ford that early in his career.

To get your best value you need to submit it for 3rd party authentication. JSA, PSA, or beckett are the ones to get. Forget any others. You're probably looking at several hundred dollars to get authenticated. (Mantle alone is $200 i think), a team ball like that probably $400-500 to get authenticated. (i submitted a Jazz team picture pete maravich picture last year and it cost $200). If you try to sell unauthenticated i think you get around 1000, if you can get it authenticated i think you're looking at around $3000 so its a little bit of a gamble. Thats just a guess on values though. Mantle rookie season and world series team are the good selling points, even though its missing a few names.

Anyway cool ball, good luck with it.

Houston has a big collectors show in january. They will have onsite authentication there.