![item_11431_1 item_11431_1](http://blog.marklamster.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/item_11431_1.jpg)
I'm not much of a buyer, but I do like to keep an eye on the baseball memorabilia market, a project undertaken with a combination of curiosity, envy, bemusement, and sheer stupefaction. (A couple of years ago I wrote a piece on Jefferson R. Burdick, the grandfather of all baseball card collectors, that you can read here.) What appeals most, of course, are the wonderful, museum quality artifacts often to be found, like the 1915 Cracker Jack poster you see above, now up for bid on the REA website (minimum bid: $25,000). A few of the other items that caught my eye, or at least my attention:
![item_11823_1 item_11823_1](http://blog.marklamster.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/item_11823_1.jpg)
The Item I most covet, a 1911 Turkey Red cabinet card of Christy Mathewson.
![item_11755_1 item_11755_1](http://blog.marklamster.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/item_11755_1.jpg)
I just loved these die cuts of the New York Giants.
![item_12518_1 item_12518_1](http://blog.marklamster.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/item_12518_1.jpg)
Does anyone really need a Mr. Coffee autographed by Joe D?
![item_12504_1 item_12504_1](http://blog.marklamster.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/item_12504_1.jpg)
For the morbid: Thurman Munson's pilot's license. Ick.
![item_12561_1 item_12561_1](http://blog.marklamster.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/item_12561_1.jpg)
Is there anything more beautiful than Victorian typography?
![item_12625_1 item_12625_1](http://blog.marklamster.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/item_12625_1.jpg)
Incongruity to the point of absurdity: Thomas Kinkade paints Yankee Stadium.
![item_12923_1 item_12923_1](http://blog.marklamster.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/item_12923_1.jpg)
Alas, no Rubens.