Friday, August 20, 2004
The Cincinnati PostAutograph collector wins ball signed by the Bambino
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By Roy Wood
Post staff reporter
Autograph collector Rich Tiberi bought a baseball in a sealed box for $49.95, knowing only that it had been signed by a major league ballplayer.
When he opened the box, he found he had purchased a ball signed by Babe Ruth.
The ball is worth $10,000, said Mark Kinman, a businessman who sold it.
The Babe Ruth ball was the grand prize in a treasure hunt in which Houston-based sports memorabilia marketer Tristar Productions sold 2,025 signed baseballs over the summer.
"It was almost the ball that wasn't. I honestly forgot about it," said Tiberi.
Tiberi, a Northern Kentucky banker who has been collecting seriously for about seven years, said he had been going to Kinman's store, Planet Collectibles in Florence, for about six years.
When Kinman told him he was getting two cases of the baseballs from the Tristar promotion, Tiberi said to save him one.
"I was honestly in there for something else when Mark said, 'Hey, I've got those baseballs,' " Tiberi said.
He thought seriously about passing on the balls, but finally took a case of six of them home.
When he opened the first box, in it he found a ball saying he was the grand prize winner.
"My heart started racing, obviously," he said. "I was standing over my sleeping wife with the ball at 1:30 in the morning trying to decide whether to wake her."
He decided not to.
The next day, he took the ball back to Planet Collectibles and Kinman got on the telephone to Tristar.
"They were pleased it went to a collector instead of a dealer," Kinman said. "They decided to fly the ball out to him."
The ball is worth thousands in part because signatures of the Bambino, who died in 1948, are rare.
Kinman says he knows of one person who bought a Ruth ball at an estate sale -- and has since refused an offer of $18,000 for it.
Tiberi says he's gotten 300 to 400 items autographed over the years and still has most of them -- some displayed in a room in his basement, some in his home office.
Because he's an Ohio State University alumnus, a football signed by two-time Heisman Trophy winner Archie Griffin is among his favorites. He also has a ticket to the game in which Sammy Sosa hit his 500th homer -- signed by the slugger, of course.
Many of the items are signed to his 9-year-old son Blake or his 7-year-old daughter Cassady, making them worth less on the memorabilia market.
"But I don't do this for monetary reasons," he said. "I'm not going to get on eBay and sell this stuff. The Ruth ball will become my prize possession."
Tiberi has no worries about the authenticity of the signature. Tristar, formed in 1987 to create sports collectible shows, is now widely recognized as one of the top two or three companies in the United States marketing authenticated autographed sports memorabilia.
Tristar officials have just launched a second treasure hunt, says spokesman Brian Ruff. That means a second Babe Ruth ball is out there somewhere.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By Roy Wood
Post staff reporter
Autograph collector Rich Tiberi bought a baseball in a sealed box for $49.95, knowing only that it had been signed by a major league ballplayer.
When he opened the box, he found he had purchased a ball signed by Babe Ruth.
The ball is worth $10,000, said Mark Kinman, a businessman who sold it.
The Babe Ruth ball was the grand prize in a treasure hunt in which Houston-based sports memorabilia marketer Tristar Productions sold 2,025 signed baseballs over the summer.
"It was almost the ball that wasn't. I honestly forgot about it," said Tiberi.
Tiberi, a Northern Kentucky banker who has been collecting seriously for about seven years, said he had been going to Kinman's store, Planet Collectibles in Florence, for about six years.
When Kinman told him he was getting two cases of the baseballs from the Tristar promotion, Tiberi said to save him one.
"I was honestly in there for something else when Mark said, 'Hey, I've got those baseballs,' " Tiberi said.
He thought seriously about passing on the balls, but finally took a case of six of them home.
When he opened the first box, in it he found a ball saying he was the grand prize winner.
"My heart started racing, obviously," he said. "I was standing over my sleeping wife with the ball at 1:30 in the morning trying to decide whether to wake her."
He decided not to.
The next day, he took the ball back to Planet Collectibles and Kinman got on the telephone to Tristar.
"They were pleased it went to a collector instead of a dealer," Kinman said. "They decided to fly the ball out to him."
The ball is worth thousands in part because signatures of the Bambino, who died in 1948, are rare.
Kinman says he knows of one person who bought a Ruth ball at an estate sale -- and has since refused an offer of $18,000 for it.
Tiberi says he's gotten 300 to 400 items autographed over the years and still has most of them -- some displayed in a room in his basement, some in his home office.
Because he's an Ohio State University alumnus, a football signed by two-time Heisman Trophy winner Archie Griffin is among his favorites. He also has a ticket to the game in which Sammy Sosa hit his 500th homer -- signed by the slugger, of course.
Many of the items are signed to his 9-year-old son Blake or his 7-year-old daughter Cassady, making them worth less on the memorabilia market.
"But I don't do this for monetary reasons," he said. "I'm not going to get on eBay and sell this stuff. The Ruth ball will become my prize possession."
Tiberi has no worries about the authenticity of the signature. Tristar, formed in 1987 to create sports collectible shows, is now widely recognized as one of the top two or three companies in the United States marketing authenticated autographed sports memorabilia.
Tristar officials have just launched a second treasure hunt, says spokesman Brian Ruff. That means a second Babe Ruth ball is out there somewhere.
