Joe DiMaggio Scrapbook, ca. 1941
Appraised Value:
$3,000 - $4,000
IMAGE: 1 of 2
Appraisal Video: (3:39)
Appraised By:
Simeon Lipman
Sports Memorabilia
Freeman's Auctioneers
Appraisal Transcript:
GUEST: I have a scrapbook that was put together by my mom. She was born and raised in the Bronx and went to every Yankees home game for many years. And like every young teenage Italian girl of the time, she was madly in love with Joltin' Joe DiMaggio, and she and a high school girlfriend of hers began keeping this scrapbook. They had been collecting newspaper articles and various things about Joe since 1939, but they actually began the scrapbook in '41, during the streak. This is a picture that was taken of her in game one of the World Series, 1949, and I've also got the ticket stub from that first game of the World Series.
APPRAISER: This is an amazing scrapbook. We generally don't do scrapbooks on ANTIQUES ROADSHOW. There's millions of them out there. Everyone kept them back then. But this one's pretty special. What's great about this scrapbook is it's all about Joe DiMaggio. And Joe DiMaggio is among the most collectible of all baseball heroes. Here we have some interesting things that were in this particular scrapbook dealing with the personal life. Joe had just gotten married to an actress named Dorothy Arnold, and she was expecting, and so here we have a page with a blue and a pink ribbon-- What's it going to be? Time will tell. There's the question mark. It was a little boy-- it was Joe, Jr., eventually. There were photographs in here, too. We have this beautiful photograph here and then another one over here. These are original vintage photographs of DiMaggio, which have value outside of just a scrapbook. These could be worth a couple hundred dollars each.
GUEST: Oh, wow. So that's very interesting.
APPRAISER: Now, you had mentioned to me that one was autographed on the back. I hate to tell you, but that's not Joe's autograph.
GUEST: Okay.
APPRAISER: Okay, that's actually just someone identifying the photograph. This is a news wire photo, and that's how it was identified. And this is Joe DiMaggio's 56-game hitting streak, day-by-day, what he did. And here we have, on July 17, which is right here, the last day of the streak-- no hits. That was a dark day in Manhattan and all around the country. What really makes this remarkable, though, is this first page right here. Now, tell me a little bit about this page right here.
GUEST: It reads, "A scrapbook of Joseph Paul DiMaggio, Jr." and all his aliases. They actually sent the scrapbook to Joe DiMaggio, care of the Yankees, and he was gracious enough to autograph the first page, wrap it up and send it back to them.
APPRAISER: That's remarkable.
GUEST: And I've told my mom-- I said, "Today..." She wouldn't see this again. You wouldn't see it again if you mailed it off.
APPRAISER: What's really great, though, is you can actually tell the time period Joe DiMaggio signed something, because his signature changed over the years, and this is definitively 1940, 1941, 1942. It's his most valuable signature.
GUEST: That's terrific.
APPRAISER: It's a magnificent scrapbook. It's so meticulous, it's so lovingly put together. It really is a work of art. Now, scrapbooks, you know, without all this wonderful stuff, generally sell in the $20, $30, $50 range, maybe, but this one is so special. If I were placing this in an auction, I would estimate it at $3,000 to $4,000.
GUEST: Oh, isn't that terrific! That's great. She is going to be thrilled to death.
APPRAISER: Oh, great.
GUEST: Tickled.
