Costco Is Selling a Babe Ruth Autographed Ball for $64,000
Costco Is Selling a Babe Ruth Autographed Baseball for $64,000
(Bloomberg) -- Customers checking out Costco Wholesale Corp.’s website for essentials like toilet paper and light bulbs might be surprised at one of its newly listed items: a Babe Ruth autographed baseball going for the low, low price of just $63,999.99.
And that’s not even the most expensive baseball collectible on the website. A Ty Cobb autographed bat is selling for $159,999.99 with an inscription of “With Best Wishes Sincerely - 3/14/49” that belies the Georgia Peach’s famously gruff demeanor.
The sports memorabilia market is booming this year. The PWCC 500, an index of the top 500 trading cards, hit an all-time high in May and has continued its upward trajectory since then. It has gained more than 216% since its inception in 2008, about as much as the S&P 500 Index’s total return over the same period.
It’s at least the second Ruth-signed ball that Costco has put up for sale this year. A ball with a lower rating from PSA -- a third-party firm that provides grades for sports trading cards and collectibles -- was listed in May for $30,000.
The current offering is “one of the nicest signed Babe Ruth Home Run Special Balls ever made available to the public, and is overall one of the nicest signed Babe Ruth balls known to be in existence,” according to the website, which warns that there are no returns or refunds allowed.
The sales end Jan. 15.
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