Baseball cards from bygone age to provide UNH scholarships
Apr. 26—More than a century ago, Daniel O'Brien, who lived on Ainsworth Avenue in Manchester and worked for the post office, began amassing a collection of baseball cards that his son, Harry, would later inherit.
With the addition of rare comic books from the 1940s, the collection's value swelled to six figures by the time Harry died in late 2022 at age 94.
On Saturday, May 4, the O'Brien family collection, including 300 cards from 1909-11, will be auctioned online piece by piece with the expected six-figure proceeds benefiting a scholarship fund at the University of New Hampshire named after Harry's parents, Daniel and Lauriana O'Brien.
Few may remember the O'Brien family, but the auction's stars are well- known around the world.
Babe Ruth. Batman. Superman.
The bigger-than-life figures have drawn bids of more than $8,000 apiece in pre-auction bidding online, with more than a week to go.
A Superman comic — D.C. Comics No. 24 from 1943 — exceeded its pre-auction estimate of $5,000 to $8,000.
Graded 8.5 out of 10 on its condition, the comic book had drawn more than 30 bids as of Friday, pushing the highest to $10,500.
A law firm contacted auctioneer Paul McInnis about appraising the Harry W. O'Brien estate.
"I would say the earlier 1909-1911 baseball cards were his dad's and then the 1940 Superman Goudey Gum cards and the comics were Harry's when he was 10 to 12 years old," McInnis said. "This is what I have been able to piece together."
In his final years, Harry kept the cards at RiverWoods, a retirement community in Durham, McInnis said. The collection was moved to a law firm's offices by the time McInnis got involved.
The baseball and non-sports cards were stored together.
"They were all in a shoebox and not in the best of organization," McInnis said.
"The comics were all in plastic sleeves, which is one way of keeping them preserved," said the North Hampton auctioneer. Harry "obviously recognized what they were."
There also was a typed inventory list of the cards Harry had "with some of his handwriting next to them," which was hard to read, he said.
The auction includes more than two dozen comic books from the 1940s, with nearly 20 attracting early bids of more than $1,000 each. But many of the superhero cards from the same decade had bids of less than $100.
Life of O'Brien
Born in 1928, Harry O'Brien served in the Army Reserves and then was a radio officer in the Merchant Marine. At some point in his life he lived in Candia, according to McInnis.
He graduated from UNH in 1950.
One group of items for auction, Lot 506, provides a peek into Harry's personality.
Harry copied a cartoon originally done by cartoonist Harold Gray, who penned "Little Orphanie Annie." Harry asked Gray to sign Harry's work.
"I got the notion that it would be personally more valuable to me if it carried the signature of the originator," Harry wrote in a typed letter to Gray dated June 29, 1967, with Harry's address listed as Vernon, Vermont.
The cartoon's theme, he wrote, "represents what has been the essential spirit of Annie since I first met her in the 1930s."
Harry's cartoon had Harold Gray's addition: "Congratulations to Harry W. O'Brien on his art work" with Gray's name written in all capital letters.
Proceeds to the scholarship fund will be targeted.
"The purpose of the scholarship is to provide need-based support for undergraduate students at UNH, with primary preference given to students from Candia and Manchester, New Hampshire," said an email from a UNH spokesperson.
Bidding online will end at 10 a.m. on Saturday, May 4, before a live virtual auction starts at 11 a.m., with live bids starting at the levels reached in pre-bidding.
McInnis said the collection should sell for more than $100,000 but declined to estimate the possible total. A 23% fee for the auction company will be added to the winning bids.
The collection up for bid also includes U.S. and foreign coins and currency, gemstones and political buttons.
Why cards count
Bryan Parker, owner of New England Sportscards in Amherst, said a collection such as O'Brien's is something someone might "find or stumble upon in their attic."
The collection included six ticket stubs from the first season the Boston Red Sox played at Fenway Park, in 1912. They included two stubs for April 19, which was rained out. The first game at Fenway was played the following day, according to the auction description.
Having those early ticket stubs shows David was an "avid baseball fan. That could easily be why he held on to them, because he loved the game," Parker said.
Told of one Babe Ruth card already fetching $8,500, Parker said, "I don't have anything in that price range in my store. I cater more to the kids. More low-end stuff, so they can get into collecting."
Kids today are split on their motivations for collecting.
"It's about half and half," Parker said. "It all depends on their group of friends they're hanging out with. They're looking at the money aspect or looking at the players they get."
Kids today, "when they collect, they tend to put them in a soft sleeve" and later put them in more protective cardholders, he said.
"A lot of kids kind of start out with Pokemon," Parker said. Then "getting in fifth and sixth grade and getting into their sports cards stuff."
Parker believes the act of collecting cards is picking up.
"I don't see it slowing down anytime at all." Parker said.
Be on the lookout
In nearly 50 years of doing appraisals, McInnis said he "often found the best item in the barn, in the attic or in the basement."
He toured one home with 18th-century furniture and antiques that weren't worth a lot of money.
"But on the way out in the barn I saw an old weathervane kind of up in the barn," McInnis recounted. "At that time, it was probably about 40 years ago, and we sold that weathervane for $6,500" — which would be almost $20,000 today.
Another time, among a museum's collection, he found a painted portrait of a child with a tear through it that eventually sold for $60,000.
"Even in a museum, sometimes the best things are not out on display," McInnis said.
