SCD: Program from First World Series Sells for $241,500

As Chris Treadway points out…“Only 2 known and one is at the Hall of Fame? Maybe they should check to be sure they still have it.”

One of only two known surviving copies of the first World Series program sold at auction Saturday for a record-setting price of $241,500, the highest price ever paid for a World Series program.  The only other program seen in public resides in the Baseball Hall of Fame.  The winner, whose name hasn’t been revealed, placed the winning bid of $210,00 over the phone during Hunt Auctions’ live event at the Louisville Slugger Factory and Museum.

The realized price for the 1903 Series program included a 15% buyer’s premium.  The first World Series, a best of nine games affair, pitted Honus Wagner and the Pittsburgh Pirates against the Boston Americans.  Boston won the series five games to three.

The program was part of a large collection of vintage World Series programs sold Saturday.  A 1908 example, from the Cubs’ last championship, brought $32,200 including the buyer’s premium.