Caveat Emptor, Seller and Auctioneer When Sports Memorabilia Is for Sale

By Irwin A. Kishner, Esq.   Days before the scheduled auction of memorabilia at Major League Baseball’s All-Star FanFest, the auctioneer, Hunt Auctions, pulled several 19th century letters when questions regarding their true ownership arose. Most prominent among them were entreaties for reinstatement from a player barred for conspiring with gamblers to one of organized baseball’s founding fathers. Hunt removed the letters from bidding while the FBI investigated whether the letters had b