What Can You Do With $1,000? Buy Some Mets Cards!

Twenty-six years of Mets team sets could cost you just under $1,000.

I found this eBay auction this week that is selling every Mets team set card from 1962 - 1988. The auction appears to include the Seaver and Ryan rookies... and Ed Kranepool!

Win the Ron Artest Championship Ring

Athletes spend their entire careers chasing them. Ron Artest will spend Christmas auctioning his ring away. . . for charity.

On December 25, Ron Artest will raffle his LA Lakers championship ring to benefit his charity, Xcel University.

To purchase raffle tickets go to: ronartest.com.

eBay Auction for Dana White to Tweet You

Twitchange is a celebrity twitter auction that is raising money for aHomeinHaiti.org.

You can bid to have Eva Longoria, Dana White, Jim Rome, Pierre Garcon, and others follow you on twitter for at least 90 days and retweet one of your tweets.

The auction raises money to build the Miriam Center, a home for children with cerebral palsy, severe autism and other disabilities.

How long until TriStar, Mounted Memories and others start selling tweets and followers at card and memorabilia shows?

Joe DiMaggio's Military Service Secrets Revealed

Joltin' Joe had a "defective attitude toward the service." According to records revealed on  TheSmokingGun.com, DiMaggio didn't really have glowing reviews in the military.

Reports from Major Emile Stoloff and Major William Barrett say Joe D's "personal problems appeared to be more of consequence to him than his obligations to adjust to the demands of the service." Stoloff added that the Yankee Clipper had a "conscious attitude of hostility and resistance." Ouch!

Years ago, Hunt Auctions did a big DiMaggio military records auction.

More at TheSmokingGun website.

Johnny Evers Fred Merkle Auction Baseball

The baseball from the "Merkle Boner" will go to the highest bidder at 4:00pm ET on Saturday, May 1.

My Johnny Evers interview is here and my story of the 100 year anniversary of the play that was also on Beckett.com is here.

REA is hosting the auction. I'm curious to see what it will go for.

UPDATE: The baseball sold for $65,000.

$6,500 for 2009 Allen & Ginter Card isn't Enough

This Abe Lincoln 2009 Allen & Ginter 1/1 DNA relic card finished with a high bid of $6,450 on eBay, but it wasn't high enough!

The reserve price was not met. The Buy it Now price was $14,999 - but it did come with free shipping.

Here's the link to the auction.

Dallas Cowboys Memorabilia Taken from Handicapped

Hopefully Jerry Jones can find some room in the budget to help out one of their biggest fans.

Butch Franklin's apartment was robbed two weeks ago and among the items stolen were pieces of his Cowboys autograph collection. As collector's, we hate to see this happen to anyone and it's more troubling when this happens to a mentally handicapped person.

When notified of the burglary Monday, a representative of the Dallas Cowboys said Butch's story would have a happy ending. "We're certainly disappointed to hear this happened," said Brett Daniels, a spokesman for the team. "And we'd love to work with him to see what we can do to replace the items that were stolen."

Here's the rest of the article from the Dallas Morning News.

SCD, Coach's Corner, and Scooby Doo

What is the relationship with Sports Collector's Digest and Coach's Corner? According to the NY Daily News . . . it's over.

To summarize the story like the end of every Scooby Doo episode:

- Coach's Corner and SCD were receiving a lot of tough questions from collectors over the authenticity of their auction items.

- Collectors began questioning the authenticity of the items and the alleged improper relationship between a company built to be a voice of collector (SCD) and a company with a questionable reputation (CC).

- TS O'Connell was tired of fielding questions about the authenticity of the items and the stopped taking comments on his blog (now an online column).

- The conversation didn't stop, it moved somewhere else - blogs like Mike the Ring Guy.

- Two organizations who may have been leaning on each other for survival are standing alone.

Was SCD pressured to stop taking advertising dollars from Coach's Corner? Did the internet and bloggers have an affect? Or as the comments on the Mike the Ring Guy's blog suggest - is this the tip of the iceberg?

"And they would have gotten away with it, if it weren't for you meddling kids!"

Buy the Shea Stadium Wrecking Ball

For $35,000 you can own the wrecking ball that destroyed Shea Stadium - and the shipping is free! It could make the perfect graduation gift! Here's the eBay auction.

Thanks Home Run Derby.

2009 Press Pass B.J. Raji - Sore vs. Soar

Check out the 2009 Press Pass inscription from the newest Green Bay Packer, B.J. Raji - "Sore Eagles" instead of "Soar Eagles." BRILLIANT!

The card is being sold on eBay with a bid price of $180 (as of this posting).

Thanks Deadspin

Michael Jordan's Locker Sells for $23,000

To have the #23 in the final sale amount of Jordan's locker seems too poetic.

Michael Jordan's Chicago Bulls locker was sold by Bulls and Hunt Auctions for charity. The winning bidder paid $23,000 for the same locker that Jordan sat next to when hugging the NBA Finals trophy with his Dad and the same locker he hung up his shorts for the last time in Chicago (2x).

MJ also autographed the wood-panelled locker. Other items at auction included a red Bulls uniform and autographed jerseys.

Source: Boston Herald

$317,200 for First Comic Featuring Superman

For $317,200 you too can own an excellent conditioned Action Comics #1. System of a Down drummer, John Dolmayan, made the winning bid last night during the internet auction.

Action Comics #1 first introduced to Superman in 1938. There are only around 100 copies of Action Comics No. 1 known to exist.

Check out http://www.comicconnect.com/ for more on the comic's relevance in the hobby. I blogged about this auction last month.

Birth of Superman for Auction - Action Comics #1

You can start placing bids for Action Comics #1 starting today! This is to comic books what the Honus Wagner card is for trading cards.

Action Comics #1 first introduced to Superman and is estimated to be worth over 100K. The seller bought it in 1950 for 35 cents.

How much will Todd McFarlane bid on this?!

Check out http://www.comicconnect.com/ for more on the comic's relevance in the hobby.

Update: As of Monday, March 2: the bid is up to $276,000! The auction ends on Friday.

The MAB Store - A New Auction House

Fees, feedback and foolishness are driving eBay stores and customers into the arms of other companies like the MAB Store.

Registration is free, but like all auction sites, you have to register to bid for items. I think you can expect more memorabilia or autographs and less sports cards at the MAB store. I don't know what the seller fees and expectations are, but any alternative to eBay is great.

My first impression is the phone number list in the top right corner! I know, it may not seem like much, but if you've had to deal with eBay email customer service or chat, then you know what I'm talking about. To be able to talk to an actual person for help is so refreshing!

I've been to a few MAB shows and have liked every one. I think the people are great and genuinely care about customer service. When was the last time someone said that about eBay or PayPal?!

http://www.mabcornerstore.com/index.php

Texas Stadium Memorabilia Auction

You have until Dec. 6 to bid on items from Texas Stadium. Doesn't a bathroom sign from from Texas Stadium make the perfect stocking stuffer?!

Here's the link. Check it out, if you're in to collecting stadium memorabilia, there are some cool things here on the list. I've always thought ticket turnstiles would be awesome, but I need to place to put them first.

You can also bid on the "throne of champions." Guess what that is!

T206 Card Auction - Rare Joe Doyle

Here's a T206 Auction that's making news and it doesn't involve Honus Wagner. "Doyle, along with Wagner, Eddie Plank and the Sherry Magee misspelling are the most sought after cards in the T206 series."

Here are a couple of links to the auction information and the T206 Museum.

- thanks to Baseball Think Factory for posting the story -