April 21, 2025
For Immediate Release
Collectors who love to acquire truly unique items or the best in class usually don’t regret their purchases. Memory Lane’s upcoming Spring Rarities Auction offers the chance to do both.
The 346-page catalog with over 1,700 lots includes autographs from sports’ biggest icons, one-of-a-kind display pieces, uncut sheets and, as usual, thousands of high-grade single cards and complete sets.
Set to open May 9, the auction’s first few pages include items most collectors have never seen, maybe the most stunning of which is a circa 1933 Old Gold Cigarettes tri-fold display advertising display piece featuring Babe Ruth at the top of his fame. Fully expanded, it measures 38” x 52” and dates to an era in which stores would place it in their display windows. One of only two known to exist, it will open with a $10,000 minimum bid.
Next to that in the catalog is another advertising display featuring Ruth’s longtime teammate, Lou Gehrig, touting the “Knot Hole League of America” club that was part of Goudey’s 1934 baseball card marketing effort. The only known example to have survived, the 28” x 16 ¾” framed piece last sold 25 years ago and has been in a private collection ever since. It, too, carries a $10,000 opener. Youngsters could send in 20 Goudey Baseball wrappers and 3 cents to gain membership in the club, which offered special perks, including a chance to have a photo taken with Gehrig, who was under contract to Goudey.
The auction leads off with an original Christy Mathewson photo taken by noted Cleveland newspaper photographer Frank W. Smith, who was known for having some of his subjects sign his photos at a later date. The Mathewson photo is boldly signed with a ‘Yours Truly’ inscription. The autograph is authenticated and graded 9 by PSA. Measuring 5” x 8” and dated to 1911, the photo shows Mathewson warming up in front of some fans. It carries a $50,000 minimum bid.
A ticket stub from Mickey Mantle’s major league debut on April 17, 1951 is also part of the auction. It’s one of only 25 surviving examples graded by PSA.
In addition to the aforementioned display piece, the auction includes a significant amount of other Ruth memorabilia, including a circa 1922 “Babe Ruth Home Run Ice Cream” postcard that is the better of two known examples. Graded 2.5 by PSA, the card shows Ruth examining and eating the treat produced by a confectionery company in El Paso, TX.
There’s also a 1920s American League Baseball signed by Ruth, Gehrig, Walter Johnson, Jimmy Foxx and 10 other players. Eight early Hall of Famers left their mark on the ball.
A one-of-a-kind autograph album page includes the autographs of Ruth, Johnson and Ty Cobb, all obtained over a three-month period a century ago.
Pre-War card collectors will have plenty to choose from with a huge group of T206 cards and 1933 Goudeys ready to fill holes in the most advanced want list.
There are hundreds of key rookie cards across all sports, vintage card sets—some of which are among the best on PSA’s Registry—along with display boxes, unopened packs and boxes, uncut sheets of 1962 Topps Baseball and 1970 Topps Test Candy Lids and vintage non-sports singles and sets.
Modern cards take up several pages of the auction, including numerous Topps Triple Threads autographed cards, all numbered to 10 or less.
Among the game-used items in the catalog is a 1958 Willie Mays All-Star Game bat graded 8.5 by PSA/DNA.
A Honus Wagner signed baseball is part of a robust section of autographed memorabilia, which includes photos, checks, cards, baseballs and bats with some of the biggest names across sports history.
Football historians will see a complete run of Super Bowl programs dating back to the first one in January 1967.
The auction will run through May 31. Registration and free catalogs are available at MemoryLaneInc.com.
