Vintage Baseball Glove Forum

This morning my brother and I headed up to Wilmington, MA, just outside Boston, to attend the Greater Boston Sports Collectors show. The show opened yesterday, but due to work commitments, we couldn't go until today. We arrived before the doors opened and walked in right as the show opened. Most of the people in line were getting ready to wait until late afternoon to meet Jonathan Papelbon and Clay Bucholz. This left the show pretty much open to my brother and I to walk around by ourselves.

I was very impressed with this show. There was a good mix of vintage and new stuff, with more emphasis on the vintage. Among the booths I saw lots of nice bats and gloves. Didn't buy any bats but splurged on a couple of gloves.

From one dealer I picked up the first model Bill Doak Rawlings glove and a Brine Frank McCormick 1B mitt. The Doak is a little dirty and missing one of the two tags, but otherwise it is nice. Stampings are strong and leather is good. It is also very large. My dad has had a couple of early Doaks and none are as large as this one. The McCormick is very high quality and has a nice tag - it will clean up really nice.

I purchased a Spalding model 128 Frankie Frisch split finger. Top quality glove in excellent shape - still has a bunch of silver in the signature. There is a neat H web on it that I've seen on Rawlings from this era, but not Spalding.

My final big purchase was a Ken-Wel Dazzy Vance. This is one of the first models, based on the ken-wel tag, and it is a beauty. The leather is soft and barely used, the tags are awesome - words don't do it justice! It is a tremendous glove. Pictures will be posted tomorrow.

Overall, I was very impressed with the show and look forward to attending next year. The one thing that bothered me is that most of the dealers treat me like I look like a guy who's never looked a glove before! It must be my youthful good lucks.

Brett-

I feel the same way...At most of the shows and events we go to many of the dealers look at me like I don't belong or I shouldn't know about something so old because I am so young...It has led to me getting some better deals in some cases, and I think in some other cases they get arrogant with me and tell me higher prices just because they don't think I can afford it in the first place ....Their loss...

Can't wait to see the pics of the stuff you picked up, glad to see someone is stilling finding things!!

Here are some pictures - I'm going to keep the Vance. The others will be available on my site sometime soon I hope:

Brett,

What a thrill it must have been to find these gloves! The Vance is an absolute gem. For as many as we see on eBay it is very rare to see one in this condition. You know I'm a big Ken Wel fan, so I am extremely envious.

One of the nicest Vances I've seen Brett. That is a very special glove. Not asking for specifics, but were they giving them away or just pricing fairly?

Yup...that Ken Wel is 'Glove of the Year'

The Ken-Wel is indeed a great glove. It's actually better in person when you can put your hand into and feel has awesome it is.

It wasn't cheap but I thought it was a fair price. The guy had $385 on it but went down to $300 for me. For a glove in this shape, and from that era, and being a Vance, I was very happy. I talked with the dealer about the glove. It comes from Maine from an older woman who's father was a doctor. The dealer was buying records from the lady when she mentioned she had an old glove and wanted to know if he was interested. He told me he doesn't usually deal in gloves but knew this one was special. He was right!

I would have paid that in a heart beat. Not cheap, but a good deal.

Brett,

Nice gloves. I have a Hutch Frank McCormick model 170 with all the same stampings, perhaps the Brine was made by Hutch or vice versa.

Jim

Wow...beauties!