Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, March 1, 1992 TAG: 9203010128
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: D11 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: From Associated Press reports
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
A New York Yankees uniform that Roger Maris wore in 1961, the year he broke Babe Ruth's home run record, sold for $132,000, more than four times its estimate, Sotheby's spokeswoman Laura Stewart said.
Super Bowl rings, matchbooks, scorecards, trophies, autographed baseballs and bats, pins and posters were among the other items for sale. Only 79 of the 559 lots offered failed to sell in what Stewart called "an exceptionally great sale" considering its size.
A Philadelphia dealer present in the crowded sales room placed the winning bid for the Wagner card after a bidding war with an anonymous bidder on the telephone. The price was the second-highest paid at auction for the card.
Last year, Wayne Gretzky and a Los Angeles Kings owner Bruce McNall together paid $451,000 for the card of the serious-looking Wagner in his buttoned-up Pittsburgh Pirates jersey. Only about 40 of the cards are known to exist.
"I raised my paddle in glee and I felt very exhilarated," said winning bidder Ron Oser, president of the vintage baseball card division of Sports Heroes, a sports memorabilia company based in Philadelphia and Oradell, N.J.
"We consider the Honus Wagner card the most famous and desirable baseball card in the world," he said.
The cards were inserted into packs of Sweet Caporal cigarettes in about 1910. When the Hall of Famer found out about it, he complained to the tobacco company and got it to pull his card from production.
The Maris uniform was bought by Jerome Zuckerman, president of Super Heroes Inc., Sotheby's said.
The game-worn pinstriped jersey that Ty Cobb wore in 1921-1922 with the Detroit Tigers brought $82,500, a disappointing price compared to its estimate of $125,000, according to the auction house.
Other top prices at the sale included $99,000 for a complete set of 1915 Cracker Jack baseball cards and $58,300 for a Magie Error card from a pack of Piedmont cigarettes. A 1952 Topps baseball card of Mickey Mantle gripping a bat sold for $46,750.
All prices include the auction house's 10 percent commission.
\ NOTE: photo of the Wagner card ran on A3
by CNB