Collectors’ Item
Last month, a California man made collectors history when he sold his 1909 Honus Wagner baseball card for a record-setting $2.35 million. Next month, Martin Abramowitz, the driving force behind Jewish Major Leaguers — an outfit dedicated to documenting “American Jews in America’s Game” — will be celebrating a comparable, if significantly less pricey, piece of baseball memorabilia: The Most Valuable Jewish Baseball Card.
In its 2007 update edition, set to be released as the new baseball season begins, the Boston-based not-for-profit will include a reproduction not of Sandy Koufax’s rookie card (estimated worth: under $1,000), but of the only known copy of the 1914 Guy Zinn. Cards of Zinn and his teammates on the Baltimore Terrapins (one of eight franchises in the short-lived Federal League) were distributed as a newspaper insert in the Baltimore News. The card is said to be worth between $2,400 and $8,000, depending on condition.