Field notes · Memorabilia · 21 October 2026
A ticket too old to slab is known by its own marks
One of two known tickets to the first World Series game is offered at Heritage on 23 to 25 October 2026. PSA does not put a ticket that old in a holder. Its record is the paper itself, the note on its back and its past sales.
In brief
Heritage Auctions is offering a ticket to Game 1 of the 1903 World Series in its Fall Sports Catalog Auction, 23 to 25 October 2026, Sports Collectors Digest reported on 15 October. Heritage calls it one of only two surviving tickets from that game, played in Boston on 1 October 1903. Heritage describes its condition as Fair, with moderate to heavy creasing. SCD reports it is not slabbed because "PSA does not encapsulate tickets of such advanced age". It was part of a well-known private collection sold at Sotheby's in 1999. On the back is a handwritten note from someone who was at the game.
With no holder and no cert number, the ticket is identified by its own features. Robert Edward Auctions' archive for its Summer 2023 sale shows a Game 1 ticket with the same printed face, the same creasing and a matching note on the back, sold for $270,000. SCD's report on the Heritage lot cites the 1999 sale and does not mention the 2023 one. A record that lists every prior sale, with the description used each time, shows a reader the object's whole path. Two dated readings frame the wider market. Households saved 4.1% of disposable income in August 2026, down from 4.6% in July, BEA reported on 30 September. The 10-year Treasury yield stood at 5.12% on 20 October 2026, US Treasury data show.
What it turns on
- No holder, no cert. The ticket is not in a grading slab. Its condition is a written description, not a number on a label.
- The note is the fingerprint. A handwritten note on the back ties the 2023 listing and the 2026 listing to one piece of paper.
- Some sales are cited, some are not. Press reports on the Heritage lot cite the 1999 Sotheby's sale. The 2023 sale sits in REA's own archive.
What we do about it
- 01Photograph both faces. Front and back at intake, at a fixed scale, with every crease, tear and ink mark shown.
- 02Measure and describe. Size, paper, printing and each handwritten mark are written down, so a later listing can be compared line by line.
- 03List every prior sale. House, sale, lot, date and price as published, each one linked or filed. That includes sales a new listing leaves out.
- 04Match before it moves. The object in hand is checked against the photographs and description on file before any hand-off.
Check it yourself
Tell us what you need held, or proven. Write to hello@brich.house