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- Declaration Doc Hits Auction Block
Good morning, Collectors. Today, we’re leading off with a big one:
A rare, nearly 250 year old copy of the Declaration of Independence is heading to auction tomorrow, and it’s estimated to sell for as much as $4M. The copy, known as the Essex Broadside, is one of 10 remaining from 1776, making it one of the first to reach the public after the original document was signed. The record for the most-expensive Declaration of Independence copy is $8.1M, for a ‘Dunlap’ Broadside, which sold at auction in 2000. The second most expensive document sold just last year for $3.4M, so if the Essex Broadside hits that high estimate, it will move into the #2 spot.
via cllct/Sotheby’s
Complete Jewish Baseball Card Collection to Auction
A Sandy Koufax card pulled in 1966 led one collector to acquire a card of each Jewish pro baseball player to ever take the field, and now that one-of-a-kind collection is heading to auction. The collection of Dr. Seymour Stoll, featuring cards of 191 Jewish ballplayers, with 506 cards in total, is considered “the most significant archive of its kind ever assembled”, and is estimated to bring in $500,000-$700,000 when it hits the block at Sotheby’s this Saturday (on Shabbos, SMH!).
FINALLY! Paul Skenes Debut Patch Pulled
By now you’ve probably heard, the Paul Skenes 1/1 Rookie Debut Patch Auto card has been pulled, and not by a breaker, but by an 11-year old kid in LA! Now the big questions are, who is the kid, and what will they do with the card that’s had collectors talking since 2024 Topps Chrome Update was released back in November? There are a few major offers on the table, including a package from the Pittsburgh Pirates that comes with season tickets for the next 30 years, and as of yesterday, an offer from Ken Goldin, who said he will donate 100% of his auction house’s proceeds to the LA wildfire recovery effort.
Mantel’s Mail Day Finds
With all the hype around the Skenes DPA, you’d think the card was going to be worth more than a pristine 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle. Certainly the Skenes card has way more hype today than the Mantle did back then. In fact, this week in Mantel’s Mail Day, writer JR Fickle unearths a newspaper ad from June 25th, 1953, advertising 3 packs of Topps baseball cards for… wait for it… 10 cents. Meanwhile, according to Waxstat, boxes of 2024 Topps Chrome Update were going for as much as $775 (for 24 packs) just yesterday.
BTW, if you aren’t reading Mail Day every Tuesday, you can (should) subscribe here.
via Julien’s Auctions / AP
Dylan Lyrics Sell to the Tune of $500K
This week an early draft of Bob Dylan’s hit, Mr. Tambourine Man, once rescued from a wastepaper basket, sold at auction for $500,000. The lyrics, written on two pages of now-yellowed paper, with notes and scribbles in the margins, were in the collection of the late music journalist, Al Aronowitz, who let Dylan use his typewriter and sleep on his sofa when the legendary singer-songwriter first stared working on the chart-topping tune. The sale from auction house Julien’s, which included dozens of other Aronowitz-owned Dylan items, was perfectly timed to capitalize on a resurgence of Dylan’s popularity, due to Oscar buzz from the Dylan biopic, A Complete Unknown.
Before we leave you, we wanted to recommend two more music-collecting articles worth your time.
The Washington Post has a heartfelt piece on Jula, a Canadian musician who has built a large social following where she takes viewers through her late father’s 10,000 record collection. It’s a story about grief, community and collecting, and can be read here.
And The LA Times published a story on Scott Dudelson, who lost his personal 8,000 album collection when his home burned down earlier this month in the LA fires. We appreciated Dudelson’s outlook- though he knows he’ll never be able to fully rebuild what was lost, he’s not giving up on his passion, saying “I’m also a music junkie. I’m never gonna stop buying music. I’m never gonna stop playing records all day.” You can read the piece here.