By Danny Gallagher

Canadian Baseball Network

You would think most serious baseball card collectors reside in the U.S. but many are in Canada.

How about tiny Campbellford, Ont. northeast of Toronto? Yes, that is true.

On Nov. 10, Corneil Auctions of Little Britain, Ont. auctioned off the estate baseball holdings of Allan Armit of Campbellford, who died July 28, 2018 at the age of 70 in Kingston, Ont.

Armit's stash of autographs, cards, magazines and other obscure memorabilia was exemplary.

As a teenager and adult, the life-long Cubs fan and graduate of Kingston's Queen's University ventured far and wide into the U.S. to obtain autographs and old-old memorabilia.

Ditto for Montreal and Toronto where he would go to find players from the Expos, Blue Jays and visiting teams. And he obtained autographs and memorabilia from other sources such as mail-ins.

"Allan travelled all over the place to get baseball cards and stuff,'' his sister Joan Macklin said in a brief interview.

A lifelong baseball enthusiast and teacher, who played the game growing up, Armit possessed autographs of many players going way back many decades. Here's a sample: Bill Dickey, Hack Wilson, Ralph Kiner, Satchel Paige, Lefty Gomez, Rogers Hornsby, Gil Hodges, Mel Ott, Tony Lazzeri, John J. McGraw, Goose Goslin and Dizzy Dean.

But there were many others, including George Sisler, Branch Rickey, Jimmy Fox, Tris Speaker, Paul Waner, Joe Tinker, Rabitt Maranville, Roy Campanella, Sandy Koufax, Lefty Gomez, Bob Gibson, Hank Greenberg, Reggie Jackson, Ken Griffey Jr. and Tony Gwynn.

The highest bids from the autographs ranged from $300-$700, depending on who the player was, auctioneer Greg Corneil said.

Attracting the most attention when it came to autograph bidding was abstruse Hall of Famer Roger Connor, whose signature brought in a healthy $700. Ever heard of him? I hadn’t until I googled his name.

OK, so there is a good reason why his signature fetched so much money. He was a 19th-century player with the New York Gothams. He was the player whom Babe Ruth succeeded as home-run champion. He died in 1931.

An autograph by Chief Bender, who pitched in the 1910s and 1920s, fetched $305. Corneil said other autographs brought in anywhere from $335-$500.

A tough-to-find Star-Cal decal set of 10 cards went for $1,800. Impressive. A yellow Peter's Delicious Weiners cardboard holder of several baseball players grabbed $1,475. Also impressive. Some 200 Jell-O coins fetched $670.

A Roger Maris Gold Mine Icicle advertising piece from 1964 brought in $250.

“I thought it would have gotten more,’’ Corneil said of the Maris piece.

Included in Armit’s portfolio were World Series official programs going back to the 1930s and 1940s. One such program sold for over $300.

There were Sport/Sports Illustrated magazines with baseball players on the covers, Who's Who of Baseball and Baseball Digest magazines, 200 Red Man chewing tobacco cards, a 1952 set of Big League cards and Topps sets going back to 1951. The list went on.

From what I could see of the 459 lots listed on the auction site, there appeared to be no baseball bats or uniforms, although there was one glove.

A Tim Raines item with him in an Expos uniform was listed as 'First Day Cover' but it was not autographed. It brought in $25. A Gary Carter item listed as 'First Day Cover' showed him in a Mets' uniform and it was autographed. A ‘First Day Cover’ contains a photo and stats for a player and it is postmarked by the post office on the day the package is released.

I even noticed a Willie Montanez card from his brief days as an Expo in 1981. It was part of a O-Pee-Chee set.

"We had a lot of interest from U.S. people online,'' Corneil said. "We had some serious buyers, who were willing to pay the money. We had many people who showed up live. About 30% of our sales came from online bidders.''

Corneil was not at liberty to reveal the total take from the auction for confidentiality reasons. Family spokesman Ethan Armit couldn't be reached for comment.

Danny Gallagher's just-released book about the 1981 Expos is called Blue Monday.