NBA's 50 Greatest Players 1946-1996 Lithograph

           

               The National Basketball Association (NBA) is the youngest of the three major sports in the United States. Baseball started in the 1800s, football in the 1930s, but basketball came a little bit later.

                There were several basketball leagues that were formed in the New York and Boston areas in particular, but these leagues were not powerful enough to make any impact on fans. Often, a game would be played before an ice skating exhibition, or other event.

                However, things changed when two associations, the National Basketball League and the American Basketball League merged to become the National Basketball Association. The year was 1946.

                Many of the rules that fans take for granted today were years from being implemented. For example, the 24-second clock was not implemented until the mid-1950s. There were still jump balls at the beginning of each quarter.

                However, the NBA appealed to fans, and persevered. Sometimes, there were doubleheaders. I remember going to Kiel Auditorium in St. Louis, and watching the Hawks play the New York Knicks play the second game of a twin bill, often seeing the Celtics play the Syracuse Nationals in the opening game. In fact, when Wilt Chamberlain scored his record 100 points in a 169-147 Philadelphia victory over New York on March 4, 1962, in, of all places, Hershey, Pennsylvania, it was the second game of a doubleheader.

                Who played in the first game that night? Players from the Baltimore Colts and the Philadelphia Eagles football teams.

                How times have changed. So have the attendance figures and the ticket prices for that matter.

                There is not too much memorabilia from those early days of George Mikan, Dolph Schayes, Bob Cousy, Bill Sharman, and Paul Arizin.

                However, thanks to the collective effort of the NBA and the Field of Dreams Company, a piece commemorating the early days of the NBA was devised.

                The year 1996 marked the 50^th anniversary of the NBA. What better way to honor the golden anniversary of one of the premier sports leagues in the world than to publish a lithograph depicting the faces of the 50 greatest players in the first 50 years, along with their autograph. The lithograph would be limited. A poll had to be taken to determine the top 50 players.

                As it so happened, the top 50 players were still alive at the time, except for one. One of the all-time greatest dribblers and shooters, “Pistol” Pete Maravich had passed in 1988, ironically playing basketball.

                It was decided that the lithograph would be limited to 250 individually numbered pieces. There would be 50 that went directly to the players. Of the remaining 200 signed prints, there were 100 “NBA Editions”, 50 “Legends Editions”, and 50 “Field of Dreams Editions”. A few more were offered to the public.

                The print is considered by many to be the most valuable, and highly desirable signed sports art.

                As time goes on, several of the players depicted in the lithograph have passed, including Wilt Chamberlain, Paul Arizin, Dave DeBusschere, and Bill Sharman. As a result, the value of the print continues to escalate, as the sport, as well, grows in popularity across the world.

                Some of the most recognizable players on the lithograph are Michael Jordan, Shaquille O’Neal, Bill Russell, Julius Erving, Larry Bird, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson, Jerry West and Bob Pettit.

                It is very difficult to find an NBA 50 Greatest Players lithograph. Most of the owners of the piece hold onto them.

                The original price to the public of the print was $25,000. The piece has gone for as much as $100,000 in private sales

                In auctions the lithograph has sold from anywhere from $38,000 - $58,000 in the last few years. In a 2012 auction Nate Archibald’s personal piece went for nearly $42,000, while Hakeem Olajuwon’s went for $58,000 in a different auction.

                The piece will continue to increase in value, so if you have a chance, buy the item. You will not be disappointed.

                For all fans and collectors of the early days of the NBA this piece is the best way to remember those glory times.

Football Helmets

               Imagine a modern day running back for the Denver Broncos or New York Jets running smack into a 350 pound defensive lineman ---- with only a leather helmet. That’s a bit hard to believe in today’s game. After all, we’re all accustomed to seeing those beautifully decorated hard plastic helmets that the players wear.

                But the leather helmets were not too much of a thing of the past. Not at all. Let me go back not too many years ago and trace the history of the football helmets. You can then see for yourself that today’s helmets have probably saved many players from great bodily harm, and even death.

                It was in the early 1900s that soft leather skull caps were used as optional headgear. Yes, optional headgear. In the 1920s, hardened leather helmets first were worn, which admittedly increased protection. Football became much safer in 1939 when John Riddel devised the first plastic helmet. However, as plastics became more scarce during World War II, so did the durability of the plastic. After the war, helmets again became sturdier. Soon, padded plastic helmets were devised.

                As a forerunner of today’s NFL helmets, in 1948, Los Angeles Rams halfback Fred Gehrke painted horns on his helmet. The Rams then became the first professional team with a helmet emblem.

                In 1955, a single face bar was added to the padded plastic helmets. Naturally, face-masking soon followed, only to be banned in 1956. The face bar was the creation of legendary Cleveland Browns’ coach Paul Brown, who wanted to protect his star quarterback Otto Graham. By 1962, facemasks were worn by all NFL players.

                Throughout the 1960s and 70s, many different face masks were developed, usually depending on the position of a player. Players can choose their own helmets.

                In 1995 a new NFL rule permitted a quarterback to have a radio transmitter in their helmets. This made it easier for a teams’ coach to call in plays.

                Today, rules regarding helmets are pretty lax. A rule does specify that a helmet with a white chinstrap must be fastened and a face mask attached.

                Of course, NFL football collectors have always been enthralled by helmets, especially ones worn by famous players. Early leather helmets are very scarce, and it is very difficult to attribute a leather helmet with a particular player in most cases.

                However, a leather helmet worn by the legendary Jim Thorpe was auctioned in 2009. Thorpe was the famous Olympian, who after having his Olympic medals stripped from him due to his not being judged an amateur, was given back to his family years later. He also served as the president of the National Football League when it was first founded in 1920. Thorpe’s helmet sold for $17925.

                The helmet worn by the two-time Heisman Trophy Award winner Archie Griffin was auctioned in 2014. Griffin, the running back who played at the Ohio State University, wore the helmet at the College All-Star Game in 1976. It sold for $28680.

                The 1985 Super Bowl XIX game-worn helmet worn by Miami Dolphin quarterback Dan Marino was auctioned for $33460. Marino played in the 1985 Super Bowl as a rookie. It would be the only Super Bowl in which he would ever play.

                Regarding Super Bowls, the 2009 game-worn, and signed, helmet worn by Pittsburgh Steelers defenseman James Harrison was auctioned in 2012. This helmet was worn by Harrison when he intercepted a pass thrown by Arizona Cardinals quarterback Kurt Warner with only 15 seconds remaining in the first half, and ran 100 yards for a Steelers touchdown. His play is arguably the most famous play in Super Bowl history. His interception was a game-changer, and was pivotal in Pittsburgh’s victory. His helmet was auctioned for $53775.

                And to those parents who sons and daughters play football, there is no more important helmet than the one that they wear to protect themselves.

Missing Super Bowl Ring

Jerry Kramer was a right guard on the Green Bay Packers. He was on the Packers team that defeated the Kansas City Chiefs, 35-10, on January 15, 1967, in the first AFL-NFL Championship game (now called the Super Bowl). Kramer was given a championship ring, a highlight in any athlete’s career. Many athletes claim that they play for the rings (of course, after they are financially stable).

     However, in 1981, fourteen years after Kramer received the valued ring---it disappeared. And then the ring showed up again, but in an auction catalog. Actually, the bidding for the ring was already at $20,000 when it was withdrawn. Most likely it could have doubled or tripled if it had not been pulled. Rings normally would not go for that high a dollar figure, but this one was the personal ring of a star player of one of the legendary teams in not just professional football, but in all of sports history. Kramer claimed the ring was stolen, but how did that happen?

     As Jerry Kramer tells the story, he was on a United Airlines flight from Chicago to New York. While he was in the restroom he removed the ring to wash his hands. He put the ring on the restroom countertop. After he returned to his seat and realizing he had left the ring in the lavatory, he returned to the scene of the crime, and the ring was gone. Airline flight attendants and pilots made several pleas on the flight to return the ring, but none of the passengers came forward. The ring had vanished.

     Kramer first learned that the ring might have surfaced when he received a mysterious call from a person in Canada. A man asked him if he was missing his Super Bowl ring, and if so, that he shortly might receive a tip about his ring. This call was followed by another, and in short order learned about an auction that included his ring. Kramer called the auction company and told them that the ring was stolen and to withdraw the lot. The company obliged and Jerry Kramer now has his Super Bowl I ring back on his finger. He is pleased about that, but still wonders what road his ring followed since 1981. He may never find the answer to that.

     The fact that Jerry Kramer has always been an upstanding public citizen, who has been supportive of the sports memorabilia industry helped persuade the auction company that Kramer was telling the truth when he told his story of how the ring disappeared. But again, this is another of those periodic situations in which the rightful owner makes a claim for an auction item that disappeared.

     So how can you protect yourself from receiving an auction item which then needs to be taken from you because it was considered stolen? All you can do is hope that the auction company doesn’t let it go that far, and that the item of which you are the high bidder is legally yours.

The State of the Sports Collectibles Market

              I think it is a fairly safe bet to say that most readers of this blog have, at one time or another, collected some sports memorabilia. Maybe it was baseball cards, maybe souvenir programs, a signed Derek Jeter ball, or even better, a Joe Montana jersey (hopefully , it was a game-used one). When I was growing up in St. Louis, I took part of my allowance money to go to Sandler’s Drugstore and buy a pack or two of Topps baseball cards and hope that I got some Cardinal players, such as Ken Boyer, Bob Gibson, Stan Musial, Bill White, or even Gene Green. In fact, I still have those cards. Lucky me, but I owe it all to my mother who, to this day, claims that she had the foresight to know that the cards would be worth a fortune.

                Well, they are all not worth a king’s ransom. But unless you deliberately disposed of some of your keepsakes, or unless they were destroyed in a fire, you probably have some sports collectibles somewhere in your house or office. And most likely, you have wondered what your items are worth. Certainly you have heard or read that prices of old comic books, Barbie dolls, and even McDonald’s toys have skyrocketed and sold for astronomical amounts. A million dollars for an Action Comics #1 from June 1938? If that’s the case, then why shouldn’t your Pie Traynor baseball card from the 1933 Goudey set be worth $100,000?

                Actually, it’s a little more complicated than that, and it necessitates taking a look at the sports collectibles market to come up with answers.

                The national recession of 2008-09 definitely hit the sports collectibles market hard. Most Americans took a long look at how they were spending their money. To most, collectibles were a luxury, and could be put on hold, even to this day. In fact, some collectors have sold part or all of their collection, sometimes at a substantial loss. One collector had a 1952 Topps rookie card (#311) of Mickey Mantle, and sold his pristine card for $18,000, when he could have easily gotten three times as much or more. Another collector had an ultra-rare baseball signed by the midget Eddie Gaedel, and parted with it for a fraction of the thousand dollars it was worth.

                So, with all that said, what is the state of the sports collectibles market today, roughly six years after the recession?

                Again, there are no simple answers, unfortunately. You really need to look at the market based on the value of each of your sports memorabilia items.

                There is no precise breakdown as to value categories, but for argumentative purposes, let’s say that the low-end items have a value of up to about $600. These items might include books, programs, pennants, cards, and bobbing head dolls. Of course, there are other types of items that could be in this category but for now we are talking in generalities. Mid-range items can go up to, let’s say, $4000, and include such items as jerseys, bats, valuable cards, and other, primarily signed items. The high-end items would go from about $4000 and up. By the way, the most valuable sports item, a Babe Ruth jersey from about 1920, sold for over $4 million, as did James Naismith’s Original 13 Rules of Basketball. A little more than chump change for most of us, as is the $3.1 million that the most pristine T206 Honus Wagner baseball card fetched at auction. Any of the 25-30 Wagner cards that presumably exist are worth a fortune no matter what condition they are in. So, how can the value of these high-end items spiral upwards so dramatically, just a few years after a recession?

Well, each category of values must be looked at individually. With the low-end items, supply and demand rules. Even if you have a 1956 Y.A. Tittle football card, so do many others. Now if that card was of Mantle, or possibly Unitas, or Jim Brown, it might be a different story. But for common items that are not of superstars, their values have remained flat. One time I had a radio caller who wanted to know about an old newspaper from the 1930s which had as its headline that the Gashouse Gang had won the National League pennant. The caller thought she had a real treasure. Nope. Too many of those newspapers still exists. They make for a great keepsake souvenir.

                The mid-range items can be difficult to analyze. Values of items in this category have greatly fluctuated. For example, a complete set of the original Hartland baseball set from the late 1950s and early 1960s can go for around $1000 in some auctions up to even $2500 in other auctions, even if the sets are in similar condition. Sometimes values of items in this category can decrease. Memorabilia signed by such players as Stan Musial and Tony Gwynn, just to name a couple, have actually gone down in some instances because those players signed so often that the items are not unique.

                However, it is the high-end items that have really exploded. If a sports collector wanted to do some investing, he or she should look into the high-end items. Most of the items in this category are game-used and have some historical significance.

                Most collectors know that the value of an item is how much someone is willing to pay for an item. But putting that maxim aside, the value of an item is usually determined by its condition, rarity, and desirability. But when it comes to sports collectibles, you can add a few more determinates as well, namely, who wore the jersey, or who threw the ball, or who swung the bat or hit the winning shot.  Was it a Hall-of-Famer? Was the item from the World Series? For example, was it Willie Mays’ glove in the 1954 World Series that he used to catch the ball hit by Vic Wertz of the Indians? I actually did have a radio caller who claimed that she owned the famous glove. Items that have historical significance are the ones that will continue to spiral in value. However, as a caveat, there are some items of players that have been disgraced in the eyes of some of the public that have not held their value. Take, for example, the baseball hit by Mark McGwire for his 70^th homerun which was sold for $3.1 million. Its value is probably now about $100,000. Some items of such athletes as Tiger Woods, Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa, Roger Clemens, and others have dropped by as much as 70 percent. But those players are the exceptions. In general, items that have historical significance, and are of Hall-of-Fame players and teams, have risen in value the most. Of course, Don Larsen was not a Hall-of-Famer, but his Yankee jersey from his Perfect Game in the 1956 World Series went for over $700,000.

                Some of the sports items that have sold for the most money, besides Ruth’s jersey, Naismith’s Rules, and the Wagner card, have included Ruth’s first contract with the Yankees, Ali’s boxing gloves that he wore fighting George Foreman, and Paul Henderson’s Canadian hockey jersey that he wore when Canada beat the Russians in the 1972 Summit Series.

                Oh, by the way, a couple items that would make anyone a very wealthy person if they were ever found, include Jackie Robinson’s bat that he used in his Major League debut on April 15, 1947, and the homerun ball that Bobby Thomson hit for the New York Giants to beat Brooklyn to win the 1951 National League pennant.

                So if you want to invest in sports collectibles, go for the high-end items.

                And that Pie Traynor card from the 1933 Goudey set? It’s worth about $225.00 in Very Good condition.