Photo: Craig Kohlruss- Fresno Bee
The card was a photo of ten men and was labeled “Red Stocking B.B. Club of Cincinnati”. Not knowing much of the game of baseball, she slapped a price of $10 on it and put it up for auction.
When she got multiple requests for info on the card mostly as to the card’s authenticity, she got a little suspicious. After some research, it was found that it from the year 1869 and was indeed worth a lot more.
Spooked with all the questions she was getting on eBay, she picked up the phone at 9:30 that night and called her good friend George Huddleston and asked his opinion.
“I never make phone calls after 8 o’clock at night,” Gallego says. “My mother taught me never to do things like that.”
Huddleston’s answer was simple: End the auction now. Figure out what you have and what it’s worth before selling it. Her husband, Al, agreed: “Get this thing off the Internet.”
The card is now off the Internet now. The card’s security is at stake now so “she put it in a sandwich bag and push-pinned it to her laundry room wall.”
“If it fell off the wall, the cat would have ate it,” Gallego says. “Well, or the dog.”
Now that she knows the full value (one dealer estimates six figures), Gallego plans to put up on Ebay again. This time with a higher reserve price, I presume.
I have an interesting question. I met a man who gave me some interesting photos. He attended the 1936 All Star in Boston and noticing there was a lack of security, he snuck onto the field with his camera and began taking photos with the other press photogs. Eventually he got kicked back into the stands but he shared with me 4 photos that have never been published. One is Hall of Famer Gabby Hartnett signing an autograph, one is the starting pitchers (Lefty Grove/Red Sox & Dizzy Dean/Cardinals) shaking hands, one is an unidentified member of the Yankees and one is of rookie Joe DiMaggio (sadly it’s partially damaged….I could cry…..). What would the value be of such photos? I would appreciate any input.