Hudson Valley Auctioneer Rescues Valuable Memorabilia From Dumpster
A quick-thinking auctioneer from the Hudson Valley saved some valuable baseball memorabilia from being lost forever.
Absolute Auction and Realty in Pleasant Valley is being congratulated for following a hunch that wound up scoring lots of money. According to Antiques & The Arts Weekly, the local auction house was selling items at a Connecticut estate sale when the homeowners called over auctioneer Paul Stansel to take a look at some things they were planning on throwing out.
The auctioneer was led to the attic where some old, moth-eaten banners and pennants were sitting behind a broken steamer trunk. The items didn't look like much but Stansel had a hunch they were something special. It turns out he was right.
The pennants were antiques from the Boston Braves. One featured the picture of a baseball player holding a bat and two others had the words “Braves 1914″ printed on them. The old baseball souvenirs quickly became popular with bidders who drove the price up from one dollar to a selling price of $3,680.
The price was driven up by the rarity of the items, and the fact that the Boston Braves pennants were from an important season in the team's history. The banners were from the same year as the team's legendary turnaround, coming back from last place to actually win the 1914 World Series over the Philadelphia Athletics.