gloves/mitts rarity & values compared to other hobby ite

[stockbuddy]

Hi Guys, I have played with a thought about the gloves and mitts of, especially many years ago, that seem rare, or very rare or very, very rare ?? and wondered about the value of the old leathers. Perhaps some of you might want to share your perspective on this topic. What is interesting to me about the old leathers is the uniqueness of some of them. I particularly thought more about this matter when the fires in California were raging and a couple of my good friends and fellow collectors had their homes near harms way. I think of some of these old gloves and mitts are truely unique and perhaps having only 1, 2 or 3 of them that even seem to be remaining. They nearly seem like pieces of art work that are rare and perhaps leave even a trail of history about the National Past-time. (While someone may have an old timer stashed in a private collection that may never see daylight for other collectors, or maybe one remains in someones mildewy baseement for ages placed in an old cardboard box; I just wonder if a person took the idea (go with me for a moment on this train of thought) that there really were only 1,2,or 3 of those leathers out there, then what value is that to the hobby and to the collectors? If some of the old gloves get burned up or blown away or destroyed over time there could go a piece of baseball's history. No more would that glove example even be around for others to check out. Perhaps there might be pics of them in books or on websites etc. the old leather itself might no longer exist.

I have heard of and thought about the supply and demand side of gloves and mitts. I suppose not everyone shares the passion many of us have for the old leathers and so perhaps that could determine the value of the leather. On the other hand, it seems the supply, at times is so limited that some gloves come around once every few years. I used to collect stamps, coins, cards etc. and it sure seemed like any time there was 1, 2 or 3 of anything the value was way, way, way up there, especially if there was a hobby that centered around that collectible.

Example of a mechanical bank made of cast iron. I saw one on tv a few weeks ago that supposedly 1 or 2 existed and it was going for around 40,000, I believe. Rare stamps can go for tons of money, a unique coin can go for a lot too.

Anyway, just curious of any others thoughts on this topic. I realize we have an excellent price guide by Joe and Dave to check out and I certainly appreciate all their time and efforts in putting it together. I suppose my thoughts on this topic is just looking at gloves and mitts values compared to other items in other hobbies.

We can only hope the gloves and mitts do not get lost over time.

Sorry for the long post, just thought I would introduce the topic.

Dave

[david bushing]

Its been over fifteen years since Joe and I did the first price guide and a lot has happened as for value. The internet has decided what is rare and what is common and most of the old Hall of Famers that were alive signing gloves in the 1980's are no longer with us. What I have found is that any gem mint NOS glove , even from the 1970's, is a great investment and going nowhere but up and really rare style gloves such as fingerless gloves and early style pre 1900 gloves in top condition are still extremely rare and a bargain at today's prices. In addition, original packaging, ie picture boxes in nice shape, hold great potential for increase with some empty boxes bring close to the 5K level. Common is common and I dont see much potential anymore for the vg condition Harvey Kuenn gloves but anything pre 1980 gem mint, esp the big stars like Aaron, Clemente, Mays,etc along with nice boxes, tags and anything pre 1920 in top condition should continue to be a good investment. I wouldf try and buy everything in this category that I could get my hands on at todays prices as these items are truly rare. In addition, any pre war player model glove that is still rare and in nice shape is a good investment such as the Ira Flagstead model in another discussion. There will always be team collectors and rare models will always command attention. A nice 3-finger glove went for around 1K just last month on Ebay and it wasn't even a HOF'er. Just my thoughts. David Bushing

[stockbuddy]

Hi Dave, Thanks for sharing your thoughts. It is nice to have you as part of the glove forum. It does seem like a good time to be collecting these old gloves. I can not imagine if our American glove hobby caught on in the collecting world of Japan, France, Germany etc, let's say. It might increase the demand and well there are only so many of these old gloves to go around. I still have glove to find for my collection so I hope the price does not rise to the moon to soon. LOL

It is a pleasure to have you on this thread and it has always been a pleasure to have Joe Phillips as well.

Dave

[vintagebrett]

I would say that the Gehrig zipperback would be the centerpiece glove, much like the Wager card is for card enthusiasts. Although probably not as rare as some other gloves, I would think that, besides some early gloves, this one consistently brings the highest price.

The Baseball Hall of Fame has some nice examples of gloves and I'm sure that they will be preserved for many years to come. It would be great if someone could get a complete listing of what they have, although I'm sure most of them are game used.

Sort of on topic, what is the highest selling price for a non game used glove, or should I say, store model? I'm pretty sure an early glove sold for close to 20 grand in a REA auction in 2006. The Gehrigs often approach 10 grand.

[david bushing]

Another group of gloves that I feel are really rare in top condition and are seldom seen these days are those late 60-early 70's red, white and blue commemorative models and two player models such as the Kessinger, Clemente, Robinson. We sold a Clemente picture box red, white and blue glove last year for almost 2K and I haven't seen a nice one since.
They were true condition rarities in that they seemed to fade quickly once used and as such, there just are not enough minty boxed ones to go around.

[softball66]

Rawlings, MacGregror sort of got caught up in those red white and blues.
But boy if left out turned pale blue, almost Green, and pink.
Dave's right nice one's are scarce but make nice displays.
Remember the story we ran in the newsletter about the kid whose dad bought him the "RED" glove?

[Brennerbaseball]

I have heard of and thought about the supply and demand side of gloves and mitts. I suppose not everyone shares the passion many of us have for the old leathers and so perhaps that could determine the value of the leather. On the other hand, it seems the supply, at times is so limited that some gloves come around once every few years. I used to collect stamps, coins, cards etc. and it sure seemed like any time there was 1, 2 or 3 of anything the value was way, way, way up there, especially if there was a hobby that centered around that collectible.

Dave,
I think you hit the nail on the head with your above quote. I think the most important question to ask is, “How many of us (true active glove collectors) are out there?” For stamp collecting, coin collecting and baseball card collecting I would guess the number of collectors would be in the hundreds of thousands, maybe over a million. These types of hobbies also span the entire globe. Google the internet for baseball glove collecting and you get maybe 1 page of hits. Now google the internet for coin collecting and you would be there all day looking at the websites. And these are just the ones plugged into the internet. Like you mentioned, supply and demand, raises the value of the item. If our hobby continues to grow then those rarer items will continue to raise in value. I remember when you could get a Lou Gehrig Zipper back for about $3500. I thought that was high 10 years ago but supply and demand is growing, now they go for over $10K.

[stockbuddy]

Hi Alex, Just think if the demand side ever does pick up.

With all the baseball fans, card collectors over the years, Beckett Baseball card subscribers from years ago, one would think the natural drift might just be to go towards the baseball artifacts.

It is fun to think we might have a real rarity of baseball history.

Dave