View Full Version : 1967 baseball

07-04-2010, 03:33 PM
My Grandmother left me a baseball signed by the entire 1967 reds team. I can't read all the signatures, but there appears to be 29 different signatures. I've pulled the roster off the internet, but can't seem to find anything on it's value. Any ideas? I figured this would be the best place to start. Are there any significant signatures to look for?

07-04-2010, 04:20 PM
...but can't seem to find anything on it's value.

Just curious, are you a REDS' fan? Is that why she left it to you?

Are you just interested in trying to sell it or do you care about it's intrinsic value that your Grandmother left it to you?

07-04-2010, 04:34 PM
My Grandparents were huge fans. My dad and I went through and got all the Topps cards for every player we could find off the roster when I was about 12. I would never sell it, ever, i just need to know if this is something i can continue to display or not and if it's something i need to get insured. I doubt it's worth a whole lot (dollars) but it's worth it's weight in gold as far as a family treasure. I've already promised it to my son on the condition that he too never get rid of it. I do watch baseball and played up to "AA" but never was good enough to make the cut. I went to college and played football instead. I have to applogise but the reds are not my team (to the disappointment of the rest of my family). My Grandmother left it to me because of all the grandchildren I was the only one interested in baseball.

07-05-2010, 05:07 AM
Getting up to AA is pretty darn good. Most guys don't make it that far.

The '67 REDS team is going to have some really important signatures on it. Signed balls have a lot to do with their condition. I had a couple of '54 Cleveland Indians World Series balls with all players from that team having signed it. Feller, and all the rest. I also had accompanying "press" photos from that World Series and the World Series jacket that they went into. You'd think that the team with the single greatest season's winning percentage in the history of baseball would garner a lot of interest, but there was no ebay at the time, or even an internet, yet (1987). I placed a value on them of $250 each (I ran the baseball card side of a gold/coin/baseball card shop) and sold them both at the time, though it took longer than I thought it would (about 2 months). 1987 was the height of the baseball card trading business. While I could probably still get $1000 for them today, that's mainly because of the internet and the number of potential customers I could reach in today's market.

Do you have Johnny Bench's autograph on it? Depending upon when the ball was signed (Spring Training might have given Bench's signature an opportunity to be on it....I'm trying to remember if Bench was at the '67 ST. I'm thinking he was. Don't feel like looking it up.), there will be different signatures on it. It should be pretty yellow by now, I imagine. That's OK. A 1967 Bench signature on it would change it's value a lot.

Personally, without knowing the exact signatures, but just guessing which ones are on it, I'd say it's worth about $300-$600. I'd definitely insure it, but just take your own pictures of it and include it in your homeowner's/renter's insurance.

Sometimes this stuff can be tricky. I remember back in 1987 when 5 of the leading experts (Owner of Beckett, Topps, Donruss, etc.) gathered together in Hawaii in order to figure out how to continue the upward trend in prices of sports cards. They could see that there was a glut of cards in the market and so they decided to "fix" the prices and they flat out made up the value of what cards were worth. It worked for a short time, but within two years, the market for baseball cards was virtually dried up. You could find thousands of people willing to sell you something at one of the "fixed" prices, but you couldn't find anyone to buy from you at 20% of the "fixed" value because they had multiples of everything you might be trying to sell them. More often than not, they weren't interested at even 10% of the "fixed" value. Thus, came out the "rare" cards, "gold" cards, "special" cards so that they could create a "false" impression of value.

Signed Team Baseballs though are still special. Especially since it was 1967, as there were a lot of REDS' fans in the Cincinnati area in 1967 (and those people have the money to spend on stuff like this). One thing about them though is that it was just before baseball went national on TV. The REDS weren't a National team, yet. Your market is going to be people who were REDS fans back then, and most likely lived in the area close enough to get them on the radio.

07-05-2010, 05:14 AM
Here's a 1953 REDS' team baseball that looks like it's in perfect condition (it's still unbelievably snow-white).



I'm reading the accompanying authenticity letter and it says "REDS and CUBS" signatures. Authenticity letter or not, I'm very leery of a ball that old and that white. I'm not saying it's not real, but before bidding on it, I'd do more research. The person offered the signatures up for examination.

The signatures look legit...Gus Bell, Rogers Hornsby.

The ball itself doesn't have any printing of the National League on it. I didn't know that they used "generic" baseballs that they had the players and coaches sign. I assumed (when they did this thing before the season started) that they used League balls. I suppose it was cheaper. But, it's correct that they are referred to "baseball clubs", as you remember when you signed your contracts when you played, whatever "baseball club" that was.

07-05-2010, 05:25 AM
This is a 1960 REDS' team, but it just has the 25-man roster at the time, going for $800:


This one has more faded signatures, which makes more sense, with some yellowing, though it was clearly kept in storage throughout the years to look as good as it does.

07-05-2010, 05:28 AM
Here's the 1979 REDS for $250:


And, here's the 1972 REDS: