Writer, collector and sports memorabilia expert Phillip Garry III has officially joined Hake’s Auction as their Sports Consultant, where he will use his over 35 years of sports collectible knowledge and numerous hobby contacts to help drive new consignments to Hake’s. 

“Hake’s is very pleased to officially welcome Phil to our staff. He has been a tremendous help over the last number of years as an outside expert supplying information on items from the Richard Merkin Collection,” said Alex Winter, Hake’s President. “That initial scenario has grown into his new role as our Sports Consultant, while at the same time becoming a close friend of mine and someone who is equally passionate about collecting and the hobby in general. He is incredibly knowledgeable and his interests are diverse, again making him the perfect fit for Hake’s. As we continue to offer items from the Merkin collection and expand our sports offerings overall, Phil will be an invaluable addition to our team for years to come.”

The New Jersey native caught the collecting bug at a young age, building a collection of Walt Disney ceramic character statues when he was just 5 years old. Throughout his formative years, Garry developed a passion for comic books, often frequenting the newspaper and hobby shops looking for the latest Marvel superhero issues. At the behest of his father, Garry entered the wide world of sports and the rest, as they say, is history. He began collecting sports cards in the ’70s, starting with Topps baseball cards, before quickly switching over to football, basketball, and hockey as the seasons changed. 

Over the next few years, Garry would continue to collect sports cards and put sets together for each of the four major team sports. By 1982, he narrowed his focus down to collecting primarily baseball cards when he “began noticing that one aspect of the hobby far exceeded everything else, value-wise and also in terms of collector interest, and that was the concept of rookie cards.” Garry entered the “rookie card craze” just as it was beginning to boom.

“I can remember the first-ever National Sports Card Convention that came to New Jersey in 1984 – it was also the fourth year for the National Convention overall. I was 15 years old and was set up as a dealer there, selling my rookie card collection. I had to operate the booth along with my father as I wasn’t yet a legal adult,” Garry shared. 

In 2008, Garry used the knowledge he had amassed to author his first book, Baseball Hall of Fame Rookie Cards. Rather than putting this book out on the market, as he would eventually do with his other books, this was used strictly as a business development tool for Garry’s full-time job as a Retail Bank Manager – a position he held for over 30 years. His subsequent publications, Negro League Baseball Collectibles Guide and 4-Sport Hall of Fame Rookie Cards Guide, both present over 1,000 memorabilia items in an informational and pictorial resource. The latter title includes every single Hall of Fame member for their respective sport. 

In addition to his books, Garry has also written sports collectibles-related magazine articles for Old Cardboard Magazineand Antiques Weekly Newspaper, as well as authoring a webpage for the Old Cardboard site entitled “Baseball Hall of Fame Rookie Cards.”

As he continued collecting sports memorabilia, in one fashion or another, Garry sites his greatest accomplishment as the 2004-2013 timeframe.

“Over those 10 years, I set a goal for myself of trying to collect a rookie card for every single member of the Baseball Hall of Fame, which at that time was roughly 280 or so inductees. By the time 2013 came around, I had completed over 85% of the Baseball Hall of Fame members with many of the cards going back to the 1880s and a few were even older than that. Amongst those who were assembling this type of collection at the time, mine was pretty widely regarded as one of the top five or so collections known,” Garry said. 

Following the peak time for his HOF collection, Garry shifted his focus back to pre-war Negro League Baseball collectibles. During this time, Hake’s began offering vintage sports items, primarily Negro/Cuban League Baseball material from the famed Richard Merkin Collection. Garry bid in an early auction from Hake’s, winning a key Negro League team cabinet card before the auction house began recording record sales on numerous Merkin pieces and became a major player in the vintage sports memorabilia arena. While this newfound attention drove certain pieces out of Garry’s price range, his relationship with Hake’s was far from over.  

A certain Negro League press photo being offered by Hake’s was causing quite a stir on the vintage baseball collector website, Net54Baseball. Garry was able to use his extensive knowledge of Negro League material to help Alex Winter determine the origin of the photo and set the record straight. Thus, was the start of a beautiful friendship. Garry continued to assist Hake’s with future Negro League photo and player identifications, particularly those related to the Merkin Collection. 

“I made several trips over the next few years to assist with all of the remaining Merkin baseball material, not only confirming IDs but also identifying items for them that were just piled up in boxes and not believed to have any significant value. I was able to uncover numerous pieces that ended up selling for thousands of dollars as well as a few select pieces that brought over $10,000,” said Garry. 

Now, as a Sports Consultant, Garry will have a variety of responsibilities. He will help drive new sports memorabilia consignments to Hake’s, as well as set up at local sports card shows in Central Florida to market Hake’s from both a bidder as well as a consignor perspective. Moving forward, Garry will inherit full responsibility for the continued offerings of the Merkin Collection, which has now been expanded to include exclusive internet-only Merkin auctions approximately three times a year while continuing to offer the higher-end items as part of the premier auctions. 

“To effectively prepare for these auctions, I will be making two or three trips a year to Hake’s to sort through all of the material and pick out approximately 200 items to run in the next auction. Once that has been done, I will then perform all of the necessary research from home and follow up with written descriptions, item estimates, and opening bids, as well as determining images to highlight for each listing. This process is expected to continue for several more years until all of the material is eventually sold. As we move forward, my responsibilities will continue to expand to other things as needed by Alex and the rest of the Hake's team,” said Garry.