RZM Fine Arts and Antiques Inc Presents: Ask the Appraiser

Recently I was appointed the executor for my uncle’s estate. Going through his scrapbook I came upon this old NY Yankees ticket. I can remember my uncle telling me that he went to almost every NY Yankee game in the 1950’s. At the time he lived on Walton Ave in the Bronx, which is two blocks from where the old stadium was located. I would imagine this ticket is for a game he attended. I can’t help but notice the entrance price. Do old tickets have any value? Out of all the Yankee games he attended, this is the only ticket it appears he kept. What do you have to say about this ticket?

Leon / Old Tappan

Congratulations Leon, the ticket stub in your possession is an extremely desirable and very collectable piece of baseball memorabilia. Your ticket stub was for the famous “Game 5” of the 1956 World Series, played on October 8th, 1956. Mickey Mantle hit his 8th World Series home run. However, the bigger news story for that game was New York Yankee pitcher Don Larsen’s perfect game against the Brooklyn Dodgers. The only perfect game in World Series history! Larsen retired all 27 Brooklyn Dodgers batters he faced to complete the perfect game. An unimaginable feat. A point of fact, Don Larsen only needed 97 pitchers to complete this game. I remember “97” as this was a recent Jeopardy Game Show question. Amazingly, only one Dodger batter, Pee Wee Reese, was able to get a three-ball count, in the first inning. When Don Larsen was interviewed years later, he recalled, “I had great control in those days.” You may want to view the everlasting image of Yogi Berra leaping into Don Larsen’s arms upon the completion of the perfect game. It was published in many newspapers at the time. Another interesting fact: Don Larsen was the last living player for either team that played in this game, until his death on January 1, 2020, at the age of 90. I’m sure now you can understand the significance of this ticket stub. Okay, we have the history, but what is its value? To accurately answer that question your ticket stub would need to be graded by a third-party grading service. Like baseball cards, it will be numerically graded on a 1 through 10 scale. I can furnish you with the particular grading company I exclusively use. Your ticket stub appears to be a grade 3 on this scale. That being said, the current value of your 1956 World Series Game 5 ticket stub is $2,500 USD. One last bit of information. If you had the full, unused ticket the value would be close to double the stub’s value. The early baseball memorabilia market is flaming red hot. We are constantly seeing world record prices for these items. Recently a 1932 Babe Ruth game worn, New York Yankees World Series famous “Called Shot” Jersey, was sold at Heritage auction for the incredible hammered price of $24,120,000! So, the readers don’t think this is a typographical error, 24 million. My best wishes to you.