Barry Halper: The Ultimate Collector

If there is one person that should be idolized in the world of sports memorabilia collecting, it is Barry Halper. Halper is the keeper of the world’s premiere baseball memorabilia collection with over 100,000 items in his possession. From Christy Mathewson’s own checkerboard to Shoeless Joe Jackson’s rookie card, his list of collectibles goes on and on. Halper is widely known and respected in the baseball memorabilia collecting world. He even has his own “Barry Halper Gallery” in the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY.

Halper finally sold his collection in a 1999 Sotheby’s that made sporting news headlines everywhere. The auction had baseball collectors salivating and included a Honus Wagner proof strip, a Ty Cobb signed Philadelphia Athletics jersey and even the baseball bat held by Babe Ruth in his final appearance at Yankee Stadium. In a span of approximately 50 years Halper has acquired 30,000 baseball cards, 4,000 photographs, 1,800 baseballs, 1,000 uniforms and 400 bats, along with other trinkets like rings and gloves. He sold approximately 80 percent of his collection for $22 million at the auction. The rest of his collectibles were donated to the Baseball Hall of Fame. Major League Baseball contributed $5 million for those pieces. Halper died on December 18, 2005 at the age of 66 and serious collectors still talk about him with awe and envy.