My mother was travelling on the Empire State railway back from
Westfield, NY in, she thinks, 1947 or 1948 when the train made an
unscheduled stop in Cooperstown to pick up the Yankees.  That evening
in the dining car the maitre'd said "you are the luckiest girl on the
whole planet, Joe Dimaggio is going to be having dinner with you". 
During dinner Dimaggio signed my mother's Children's menu and pointed
out all the other players that were in the dining car.  She proceeded
to get the signatures of about 10 or so players including Dimaggio,
"Larry" Berra, Tommy Heinrick and Joe Crosetti.

The menu is perfecly preserved, what do you think the value of this is?

---

Clarification of Question by golkkid-ga on 16 Jul 2004 09:08 PDT

I am not looking for a rock solid answer to this just something that
would be in the ballpark...thanks.

Dear golkkid-ga

Thank you for allowing me to answer your interesting question. As you
said, I will give you a ballpark (no pun intended) estimate of the
value of your collection of autographs with the assistance of a
friend, of course:

I posed your question to Bill Butts, owner of MAIN STREET FINE BOOKS &
MANUSCRIPTS, Ltd. in Galena, IL 61036. His business specializes in
rare manuscripts and autographs of a variety of historical figures
(sports figures among them) and he also performs professional
appraisals.

Mr. Butts immediately said the true value of your collection would
depend on who ?ALL? signed the menu since there may be some little
known players whose signatures later became quite valuable. Then
again, depending of course upon the overall condition of the menu and
the clarity of the signatures, the value can go either way.

Base on the signatures of the few notable sports figures you named
(Joe Dimaggio being the most prized in this case) and the time period
in which the signed menu was obtained (the specific year(s) apparently
have some impact), Mr. Butts guessed that your collection would
minimally be worth ?a couple hundred to several hundred dollars?. He
says that without actually seeing the item it would be difficult if
not impossible to narrow it down more than this, but that if he were
to speak to you, examine the item or learn more about it and the other
signatures (the ones not mentioned) he might be able to get a closer
estimate, or perhaps even recognize a signature that could increase
it?s value significantly. At this point, knowing what little we know,
I think we can reasonably assume that ?a couple hundred to several
hundred dollars? could translate to $200-$500 or so depending on how
badly a collector wanted your item. As I said, this could change
substantially based on the menu?s condition and who ?ALL? signed it.

Give him a call and ask him about your item. Mr. Butts is very
knowledgeable in this area and was delighted to speak to me about my
research. I?m sure he?d be more than happy to assist you further. The
call is free in the United States and you have nothing to lose.

Main Street Fine Books & Manuscripts, Ltd.
206 North Main Street
Galena, IL 61036
Telephone: (815) 777-3749
Toll Free: (800) 708-6226
Fax: (815) 777-8950
E-mail: msfb@galenalink.com
http://msfb.wcinet.com/index.cfm

I hope you find that my research exceeds your expectations. If you
have any questions about my research please post a clarification
request prior to rating the answer. Otherwise I welcome your rating
and your final comments and I look forward to working with you again
in the near future. Thank you for bringing your question to us.

Best regards;
Tutuzdad-ga ? Google Answers Researcher



INFORMATION SOURCES

Main Street Fine Books & Manuscripts, Ltd.
http://msfb.wcinet.com/index.cfm



SEARCH STRATEGY


SEARCH ENGINE USED:

Google ://www.google.com


SEARCH TERMS USED:

VINTAGE 

RARE 

SPORTS 

AUTOGRAPHS 

SIGNATURES 

APPRAISAL 

APPRAISER

Compare to items at History for Sale 

http://www.historyforsale.com/html/search.asp

It seems that an item with a group of signatures from that era retails
for between $1000 and $2000 US - the fact that it is a dining car
menu, rather than your typical item (bat, ball, etc.) may allow it to
be in the higher end of that range - though the price would be higher
for a signature(s) on an official document.