James Naismith personal vintage basketball collection The most important basketball archives in existance Start Price USD 1,000,000.00 Current Price USD 1,000,000.00 Time Left 10 days 15 hours 15 minutes Bid Count 0 Buy It Now Price - Reserve Price - Start Time Thursday, October 02, 2008 End Time Monday, December 01, 2008 Location Tokyo See more about 'James Naismith personal vintage basketball collection' Description DR. JAMES NAISMITH PERSONAL COLLECTION Up for sale is indisputably the most important basketball archives in existence. It was sold earlier in this year and was to have been a highlight in the launching of a new sports museum for Haskell Indian Nations University for their upcoming 100th anniversary celebrations. Unfortunately, with the economic changes that have affected many business deals, the funding for this collection did not materialize from the Indian Gaming Federation members, who had apparently pledged their support through casino earnings. As such, this is a rare opportunity to acquire the finest basketball archives in existence. Until the historic Heritage Auction Galleries sale, on December 15, 2006, which featured the personal effects of the founder of basketball, there was hardly any material known to exist that belonged to Dr. James Naismith. Springfield College, where the game was first invented, in 1891, boasted of one important item, namely an application form filled out by James Naismith who was a student when he invented the game. The Basketball Hall of Fame, which is perhaps the most famous museum for this sport, displayed for many years an early personal copy of the Rules of the game, signed by James Naismith. This copy was deemed to have an insured value of ten million dollars by the Smithsonian Institute. With its obvious important basketball content, and a signature by Nasmith himself, this two-page document was considered the holy grail of basketball ephemera. That is, until the Heritage Auction Galleries sale. At this auction hundreds of items of equal importance became available with iron-clad provenance. When Naismith died in the late 1930s, he left everything that was important to him with one daughter, Helen Naismith Dodd. It was the daughter of Helen Dodd that found five boxes of family papers by chance in 2006 and decided to sell the material through Heritage and Leland auctions. Most of the 400 plus items in both sales consisted of personal letters written by James Naismith to family members and as such were valued for their autograph appeal. Also included was an assortment of other “souvenir” type items which we felt did not make a statement on the founder of the game. We purchased the lots which contained important biographical material as well as those with revealing basketball content. Almost every lot of importance, those that told the story of the man who invented this great sport, and the evolution of the game itself, was purchased from this sale. The same was true of the subsequent auction at Lelands. We also took the liberty to purchase an assortment of important items outside of these auctions. This includes the earliest known copy of the very first rules of the game, considerably earlier than the copy that was once on display at the Basketball Hall of Fame. We can back this up with concrete proof. We want to sell this material as a single collection to some entity, which can afford it, and can demonstrate that they have the capacity to exhibit it publicly. We are not interested in making a profit by breaking it up or by selling to a private collector or dealer who wants to hoard this collection. Our buy it now price reflects our actual outlay thus far. Our terms are straightforward. You need to send us an email before bidding, demonstrating that you have the capacity to pay and a plan to exhibit the collection. We also require your contact information including a phone number. We will not accept your bid unless you have done this. If you meet our criteria we will send to you a word document with a long list of every item for sale. You should start by sourcing out a copy of the Heritage sale catalog as we refer to it by lots. The collection is currently in storage in Tokyo and arrangements may be made to preview it on short notice, once you have registered with us. Every major item has at least three letters of authenticity, including two internationally recognized authenticity boards and a letter signed by the Naismith family. Once a bank wire payment has been made the collection will either be hand delivered to you or shipped. Place a Bid!