WHOA NELLIE!

[red_sox_fan86]

It depends what kind of off-field behavior it is. Everyone loves Mickey Mantle even though he was an alcoholic, but Michael Vick is shunned.

Vick is still the man and he got screwed because he's black and he was a superstar. If it was discovered that a mediocre white NFL player was into dog fighting it wouldn't have been nearly as big of a deal.

This site has 7 pages of arrests of just NFL players and I doubt their memorabilia value has diminished at all.

http://www.signonsandiego.com/sports/nf ... PIorderBy=

It's definitely more common for NFL players to be arrested (there are more of them) but there are MLB players like Brett Meyers (Phillies) punching his wife on a Boston street, and Elijah Dukes (Rays) threatening to kill his wife and her kids, even sending her a picture of a handgun.

I don't understand it, but if you get caught for somethings (animal cruelty or steroid use) you're going to get buried, but if you beat a pregnant women or run someone over with your vehicle, you're usually fine.

[Centerfield]

if anyone from the VG community is offended by my comments and sarcasm, feel free to use this thread to debate and/or bash me

OK... I'll take you up on that challenge and bash a little bit!

There are literally thousands of small rectangular pieces of cardboard with baseball players' pictures on them worth more than the most expensive glove in our hobby. Some sell for well over six figures on a consistent basis. Now, by your logic, a flat pice of cardboard is less labour intensive to make than a three dimensional box with six sides. So, perhaps a Mantle picture box should be worth seven figures?

In all seriousness. Comparing cards to gloves (especially glove boxes) is an interesting topic. I recall hearing that there are 50 or so T206 Wagner cards out there. Far more of them exist than Wagner endorsed gloves. Does this make them more valuable? From a supply sense, they should be. But there is a massive differential in the demand side of the equation. Glove collecting is an extremely small slice of the overall memorabilia hobby, thus when an item crosses over into multiple genres and collecting interests, it commands higher prices simply because of greater demand.

School's out, now. Go back to the modern glove section of the forum where you belong (and there's even less demand)!!!

[Centerfield]

Vick is still the man and he got screwed because he's black and he was a superstar. If it was discovered that a mediocre white NFL player was into dog fighting it wouldn't have been nearly as big of a deal.

Be careful not to generalize, especially when condemning. I seem to recall an NFL superstar (a Hall of Famer who just happens to be black) who literally got away with murder a few years back. But then again, he "is still the man" as you say, because he gets to play golf each and every day.

[spedrunr]

hey, if the glove fits (or in this case, doesn't fit)

pun intended

[red_sox_fan86]

That's my point, killing a person is apparently not as bad as killing an animal. It doesn't make sense. Vick could have possibly gotten a legal team to get him off, but he confessed, probably because it's not that big of a deal. Then they "made an example out of him," and screwed him.

And I'd play golf with "The Juice" any day.

[spedrunr]

just don't turn yer back on him while yer teeing off (and don't piss him off)

give him as many mulligans as he needs too

[jwoody]

"Not a helpful post - please check your PM - Thanks."

[vintagebrett]

The discussion about the Wagner card related to his gloves is intriguing to me. There is such a myth and legend to the card that it commands crazy prices regardless of condition. His gloves, on the other hand, sell for a tiny fraction of the card even though they seem to be scarcer. How many Wagner gloves have emerged? Maybe 10 to 20? But, as Centerfield said, the glove collecting community is very small compared to the collecting community at large, and the card is one thing that seems to draw a lot of people in.

[vintagebrett]

It will also be interested to see if gloves (and cards, bats, etc.) hold their value over the course of the next 100 years. For the most part, sports memorabilia collecting isn't very old and prices have only begun to skyrocket in the past 15 to 20 years. Will the next generation of collectors even be interested in Mickey Mantle and Babe Ruth?

At this time, baseball memorabilia definitely commands the most attention and money. Obviously, it has been around longer than other sports in the USA and has a larger history. However, with so many other sports and video games vying for the attention of today's youth, what's going to happen? 50 years from now are we going to see auction houses selling 1st generation video games? Is an original copy of The Legend of Zelda in it's box going to be worth more than a Mickey Mantle glove in the picture box. We all probably laugh at that notion but if you told someone back in the 1960's that a Mantle box would sell for over 3 grand, they'd probably have the same reaction. Granted, things are more widely produced and I'm sure more people save things hoping this happens, but still, it's interesting to think about.

[Centerfield]

I had this discussion with my picture framer yesterday (he's a vintage vinyl record collector). He believes that cd's will actually begin being collectable in a few years and wonders if the next generation or two will be interested in vinyl. He's a baseball fan as well and we touched on the exact topic of Ruth and Mantle demand 20 to 40 years down the line. A bunch of us here on this site collect Ruth endorsed gloves, and none of us ever saw him play. To me, that answers the question. More importantly, in my opinion, is will kids in the future be enthralled with baseball in general. If they are, big name players from the past will always be in vogue because history is such a large part of the game. If baseball continues to mismanage itself and interest wanes further, all our stuff will be worthless.

Back to the topic at hand, which Joe began at the thread's onset. $3227 is a hell of a lot of money to pay for a Mantle picture box. However, to me, the $2500 ($2875 with the juice) Hunt got for the Mantle generic box puts it in perspective. There's a $350 difference between the two. For roughly the same amount of money, which one would you want more? If you're into boxes, it's a no-brainer.

[spedrunr]

this discussion actually makes more sense. i just bought my 19 m/o daughter one of those pink neoprene kids gloves from walmart. she likes to put i on her hand and say ball-ball for about 3 mins. then, she plays with the box it came in daily for what seems like hours.

value is in the eye of the beholder