Rare Book Monthly

Articles - October - 2007 Issue

In The News: Burned Books, George Washington Baseball Cards, and the Alibris Nickel

Washcard

George Washington “baseball” card offered on eBay.


You may have missed it, as there was no accompanying fanfare, but the Alibris nickel quietly faded into oblivion sometime recently. You may recall that Alibris always cut a nickel off the price of books listed on their site. This is the old marketing strategy used to sell gasoline and other products. $2.99 9/10ths appears to consumers to be significantly less than $3.00 per gallon. The book posted for $5.00 elsewhere would be $4.95 on Alibris. The $10 book would be $9.95, the $25,000 book $24,999.95. If nothing else, it gave Alibris first listing on the websites that search multiple listing sites for books. However, it must not have made a noticeable difference in sales, or at least not enough to be worth the lost five cents of revenue on every copy. Alibris made no announcement, so we do not know why the "discount" was dropped, but one can guess that they would not have made the change if the lost nickel increased sales.

One of the stranger pieces of printed, collectible ephemera showed up on eBay recently. Sports cards can be quite valuable, as anyone who ever wished to purchase an early Honus Wagner can attest. However, this was a more unusual baseball card. After all, at least Wagner played the game. This was a George Washington baseball card, which anyone familiar with the chronology of baseball and George Washington will quickly realize is logically impossible. Washington died two decades before Abner Doubleday was born. It's possible, had they overlapped, Washington would have been a great pitcher or powerful hitter. He was certainly a great general and president. Nevertheless, greatness in other fields does not always translate to baseball, as Michael Jordan's baseball career established.

This card was produced by Allen and Ginter, a division of baseball card magnate Topps, Inc. They are the ones who printed the baseball cards you remember from your youth, the ones with baseball players on them. The Allen and Ginter division has printed a series of classic cards, ones meant to look like the old baseball cards of the late 19th century. However, they have added a few surprises, including notable people from other sports, and a few from professions outside of the world of games. Like presidents.

The Washington card, however, is unusual even by their standards. Just three were printed, and each has embedded in it a strand of Washington's hair. Reportedly, Topps purchased three strands of Washington's hair from a hair collector, and inserted them in the cards. No price was given, but Washington's hair sells for a premium (like real estate, they are no longer making any). When the first of these cards surfaced and was placed on eBay, it was quickly bid up into the thousands of dollars.

Among the reactions generated by this card were "weird" and "gross." The owner reported one person wanted to buy it so he could clone Washington. This is the best idea we have heard in a long time. Can you imagine a President George W. we can all agree upon? Better yet, can you imagine a president saying, "I cannot tell a lie" without telling one? A second George Washington would be a far greater contribution to humanity than another Dolly the Sheep. Still, it is dubious that hair in baseball cards is quite in keeping with the dignity of the man. Perhaps Topps should have printed a Millard Fillmore card, he being more accustomed to presidential ridicule than the esteemed Washington.

Rare Book Monthly

  • <b>ALDE, Apr. 18:</b> CASAS (BARTOLOMÉ DE LAS). <i>La Découverte des Indes occidentales par les Espagnols,</i> Paris, 1697. €1,500 to €2,000.
    <b>ALDE, Apr. 18:</b> GARCILASO DE LA VEGA. <i>Primera parte de los commentarios reales, que tratan del orígen de los Yncas…,</i> Lisbonne, 1609 [1608 au colophon]. €8,000 to €10,000.
    <b>ALDE, Apr. 18:</b> GARCILASO DE LA VEGA. <i>Histoire des Yncas rois du Pérou. On a joint à cette édition l'Histoire de la conquête de la Floride,</i> Amsterdam, 1737. €800 to €1,000.
    <b>ALDE, Apr. 18:</b> LAET (JOHANNES DE). <i>L'Histoire du nouveau monde, ou description des Indes occidentales,</i> Leyde, 1640. €8,000 to €10,000.
    <b>ALDE, Apr. 18:</b> LAFITAU (JOSEPH-FRANÇOIS). <i>Mœurs des sauvages amériquains, comparées aux mœurs des premiers temps,</i> Paris, 1724. €1,200 to €1,500.
    <b>ALDE, Apr. 18:</b> ORRIO (FRANCISCO XAVIER ALEXO DE). <i>Solución del gran problema acerca de la población de las Americas,</i> Mexico, 1763. €1,500 to €2,000.
    <b>ALDE, Apr. 18:</b> [ROCHEFORT (CHARLES DE)]. <i>Histoire naturelle et morale des Îles Antilles de l'Amérique,</i> Amsterdam, 1716. €800 to €1,000.
    <b>ALDE, Apr. 18:</b> TURGOT (ANNE-ROBERT-JACQUES). <i>Mémoire sur les colonies américaines, sur leurs relations politiques avec leurs métropoles…,</i> Paris, 1791. €1,000 to €1,200.
  • <center><b>Dominic Winter Auctioneers<br>April 5<br>Printed Books, Maps, Atlases & Caricatures</b>
    <b>Dominic Winter, Apr. 5:</b> Speed (John). <i>The Theatre of the Empire of Great Britaine...</i> bound with <i>The Prospect of the most Famous parts of the World,</i> Thomas Bassett & Richard Chiswell, 1676. £20,000 to £30,000.
    <b>Dominic Winter, Apr. 5:</b> China. De Jode (Cornelis), <i>China Regnum,</i> Antwerp [1593]. £7,000 to £10,000.
    <b>Dominic Winter, Apr. 5:</b> World. Hondius (Henricus), <i>Nova totius Terrarum Orbis Geographica ac Hydrographica Tabula.</i> Auct: Henr. Hondio. Amsterdam, circa 1630. £5,000 to £8,000.
    <center><b>Dominic Winter Auctioneers<br>April 5<br>Printed Books, Maps, Atlases & Caricatures</b>
    <b>Dominic Winter, Apr. 5:</b> World. Blaeu (Willem Janszoon), <i>Nova Totius Terrarum Orbis Geographica ac Hydrographica Tabula</i> auct: Guilelmo Blaeuw, Amsterdam [1635 - 58]. £5,000 to £8,000.
    <b>Dominic Winter, Apr. 5:</b> Acosta (Emanuel). <i>Rerum a Societate Iesu in Oriente gestarum ad annum usque à Deipara Virgine…,</i> 1st edition, Dillingen: Sebald Mayer, 1571. £3,000 to £5,000.
    <b>Dominic Winter, Apr. 5:</b> Ruggieri (Francesco). <i>Scelta di Architetture Antiche e Moderne della Citta di Firenze…,</i> 4 volumes bound in two, Florence, Appresso l'Editore, 1755. £3,000 to £4,000.
    <center><b>Dominic Winter Auctioneers<br>April 5<br>Printed Books, Maps, Atlases & Caricatures</b>
    <b>Dominic Winter, Apr. 5:</b> Parry (William). <i>Journal of a Voyage for the Discovery of a North-West Passage,</i> 6 vols in 5, 1st editions, 1821-27. £2,000 to £3,000.
    <b>Dominic Winter, Apr. 5:</b> Hunter (John). <i>A Treatise on the Blood, Inflammation, and Gun-Shot Wounds,</i> 1st edition, 1794. £1,000 to £1,500.
    <b>Dominic Winter, Apr. 5:</b> Furber (Robert). <i>The Flower-Garden Display'd, in above Four Hundred Curious Representations of the most Beautiful Flowers…,</i> 1st quarto edition, London, 1732. £1,000 to £1,500.
    <center><b>Dominic Winter Auctioneers<br>April 5<br>Printed Books, Maps, Atlases & Caricatures</b>
    <b>Dominic Winter, Apr. 5:</b> Friedman (Milton). <i>A Theory of the Consumption Function,</i> 1st edition, 1957. £500 to £800.
    <b>Dominic Winter, Apr. 5:</b> Clarkson (Thomas). <i>The history of the ... abolition of the African slave-trade,</i> 2 vols., 1808. £800 to £1,200.
    <b>Dominic Winter, Apr. 5:</b> Civil War Pamphlets. A sammelband of 19 pamphlets relating to events of the English Civil War, 1640-1661. £2,000 to £3,000.
  • <b><center>Swann Auction Galleries<br>Printed & Manuscript African Americana:<br>March 30, 2023</b>
    <b>Swann March 30:</b> Victor H. Green, <i>The Negro Motorist Green Book,</i> New York, 1949. $10,000 to $15,000.
    <b>Swann March 30:</b> Papers of pianist-composer Lawrence Brown relating to Paul Robeson & more, various places, 1925-54. $5,000 to $7,500.
    <b>Swann March 30:</b> Freedom Summer archive of civil rights activist Karen Haberman Trusty, Atlanta & elsewhere, 1963-64. $5,000 to $7,500.
    <b>Swann March 30:</b> E. Simms Campbell, <i>A Night-Club Map of Harlem,</i> New York, 1933. $8,000 to $12,000.
    <b>Swann March 30:</b> Archive of letters from the sculptor Richmond Barthé to a close Jamaican friend, various places, 1966-85. $25,000 to $35,000.

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