GU's Holy Grail

[joelsabi]

If baseball card's holy grail is the Gretzky T206 Wagner, what is considered the game used memorabilia's holy grail? What is it and who owns' it.

[yanks12025]

I would say the bat Babe Ruth used to hit the first home run at yankee stadium. If its not that it has to be somthing dealing with Babe Ruth or Lou Gehirg. Maybe the jersey Gehrig was wearing during his famous "I'm the luckiest man on the face of this earth" speech. And i have no idea who owns these items, all i know is that their very rich.

[thomecollector]

To me, It would have to be the bat that Babe Ruth used to lean on in his last appearance. I believe Bob Feller owns that one. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

[joelsabi]

Maybe I should ask it another way. Is there a consensus Holy Grail for game used memorabilia? Card collecting seems to have one. I was wondering if there is a consensus. I do not seem to see anything that says this is THE item as they have in baseball cards.

I appreciate also if you want to give your vote too. I thought it was the Shoeless Joe Jackson's bat, Black Betsy but have nothing to support this.

[thomecollector]

It may be Black Betsy . But not for long. I thought I read that Upper Deck bought it to use in cards. Those @#%$!*

[yanks12025]

If it was black betsy i think someone would have bought it again. I'm sticking with my 2. Have you thought maybe the Gretzky T206 Wagner is the holy grail of just collecting. I know if i had the money it would be on my top 10(being the Lou Gehrig famous speech jersey first).

[TFig27]

To me, It would have to be the bat that Babe Ruth used to lean on in his last appearance. I believe Bob Feller owns that one. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

On Babe Ruth Day, June 13, 1948 at Yankee Stadium, when terminally ill Ruth used Feller's bat to keep his balance while speaking: "That bat is in my museum right now in Van Meter, Iowa. I got that bat back. It took a long time to get it, but I got it back. One of my teammates took it and hid it after Babe signed it, and then I bought it back from a fellow that won it in a contest after (collector) Barry Halper sold all his memorabilia.
Babe came walking out of the runway. He was dying of throat cancer. He was very feeble. He probably only weighed about 145 to 150 pounds. He reached in the bat rack there in the third base dugout, which was our dugout, the visiting team dugout. He grabbed a bat at random to use for a cane and to lean on. And, as a coincidence, it was my bat. He had no idea whose bat it was. I was warming up to pitch the ballgame, and he just took that bat and leaned on it. One of my teammates had (Ruth) sign it, and that teammate put it away and hid it. And then the bat came back to me later by way of Barry Halper, who bought it from my teammate. (Halper) auctioned it off, then Upper Deck ran a contest, and this guy from Seattle won it. I bought it back for my museum from this man in Seattle, Washington."

[corsairs22]

I think that Black Betsey might be the single most recognized piece of equipment. (Surely you are joking about Upper Deck slicing it up into a million pieces). But if we're talking about a Holy Grail, I would think that the item would have to be missing and not available on ebay. Has the bat that Ruth used to hit #60 been identified? If we are looking for an item that is known to be missing, I nominate the Mathewson uniform that was stolen from his hometown seven years ago. And don't forget those affidavits that went missing from the Black Sox trial.

[joelsabi]

Have you thought maybe the Gretzky T206 Wagner is the holy grail of just collecting.

If it is, I hope what I read in the book "The Card" is not true. The is this one guy in the book who collects the best T206 cards possible and the Wagner card he would want was not the Gretzky T206 but a nongraded T206 Wager thats belong the HOF Museum.

I went to the Nationals one year where they had this Gretzky T206 Wagner as the the thing to view at the Nationals so it may well be the Holy Grail of the entire baseball collecting hobby.

[joelsabi]

interesting. here the top 3 prices for a single item.

3. Babe Ruth used in hitting a home run in the very first game at Yankee Stadium, sold for nearly $1.3 million at an auction recently.

2. No, we’re NOT talking about the sale announced on September 6, 2007 of the Wagner at $2.8 million purchased by an anonymous buyer from an anonymous seller who purchased it from Brian Siegel for $2.35 million in February 2007.

1. $3 million for the baseball that Mark McGwire hit for home run #70 in 1998. The buyer was a comic book artist by the name of Todd McFarlane