Vintage Baseball Glove Forum

Check this out: Ebay item #250178836888




WAR EAGLE!

What I really like about it is the extra detail given by the seller "Buyer to add $25 for insured shipping."

If that is his opening bid, I wonder how much he thinks it is worth?




WAR EAGLE!

The glove is very nice. The funny thing to me is the difference in price for Mays and Mantle gloves considering they played in the same era. I think you could argue both were equally talented, although I'm too young to have seen either one play. Both are very common gloves but the Mantle gloves do so much better. If this was a Mantle glove in the box, it would be gone by now and we wouldn't be talking about the price. Funny how these things go.

As a New York Giants memorabilia collector, I would love to have this glove and box. Just the glove alone is a great find.It would be at the top of most wish lists. But at the prices they go far, I'll have to be satisfied with pics.

I'm curious, how rare are the Mays boxes, and what would be a realistic price for this auction? To think you could have bought it at one time for $9.95.



WAR EAGLE!

This is the first such Mays glove box I can recall ever having seen. After looking at, literally, thousands of eBay auctions over the years that would seem to place this squarely in the "rare" catagory! For that matter, I have only seen a couple of Mays G25 models and they don't come up for sale very often.

As a side note, this glove is nearly identical to the MacGregor G111 Bob Doerr glove I posted under the "Today I Found..." section this past summer. The only differences (besides the endorsement) are the color of the MacGregor patch and the addition of a slight palm and pinky lace on the Mays. All other aspects- the shell, stitching, web, etc.- are exactly the same.

From a "book value" standpoint, that opening bid price might not be too outlandish- though too rich for my blood!

The G25 Mays was a mid-priced glove, so the book price is somewhat less than a top-of-the-line Mays personal model. The glove itself is listed as being "rare". The Vintage Glove Price Guide puts a near-mint Mays "USA- 50's style" glove alone, including the G25 model, at $200. A case could be made to call this glove "mint", which at least doubles the price to $400.

The guidelines for a "picture box" with the matching glove tells us that, for post-war Hall of Famers depicted in uniform the glove price is multiplied by a factor of six. So a perfect mint G25 Mays with the box would top out at a full-book value of about $2400!

Given the condition of the glove (I'm kind of picky and might rate this just a tiny notch below "mint"- but not much below- due to some fading of the stampings and wrinkling of the leather) and the box, that opening bid is just about consistent with the full-book retail value.

But who pays full-book value for their collectibles?

By now Mantle collectibles in all memorabilia areas are considered hot. The fans who grew up in the '50s-60s he was the big hero worship icon.
A lot going for him Yankees, awesome power, speed. Mays was his equal- opposite in the other league and, of course, a black man which likely affected his attraction. He was one of the first blacks to ink a glove contract and be promoted thusly (and contrast that to Jackie Robinson and no or little importance contract: Caprico). Mays was almost hands down a better defensive centerfielder than Mantle who was no slouch but didn't seem to have the dexterity of Mays. Mantle's speed was hampered by knee problem. Mays has always seemed to be resentful of the attention give to Mantle but has to battle the Yankee charisma.
I've seen maybe a half-dozen Mays boxes and about 50% of these were picture boxes and they are much more rare than Mantles.
There were, in my opinion, five great super stars of the 1940s-'50s.
Coming from an earlier era: DiMaggio, Williams and Musial and Mantle and Mays. Mantle's collectibles have passed the popularity of the others.
Rawlings made a great move when they signed him to a glove contract.