Pre-War Cards

A rarely-seen minor league card signed by Joe DiMaggio was recently sold by Heritage

While autographed cards of Joe DiMaggio aren’t impossible to find, securing cards signed by the Yankee Clipper from the pre-war era are increasingly difficult.

But, how about an autographed card of DiMaggio while he was still in the minor leagues?

The popular Zee-Nut cards are easily the most extensive minor league releases. In many cases, they contain the only known cards of players that did not reach the major leagues. And while there are many big names found across the sets that spanned three decades, DiMaggio is probably the biggest.

Finding DiMaggio’s cards (he is in the 1933-36 sets twice with a throwing pose and batting pose) difficult enough. Only 34 total DiMaggio Zee-Nuts have been graded by PSA. But finding an autographed one is on an entirely different level. To date, PSA has graded only three of those.

Recently, Heritage auctioned off the highest graded one of the bunch — a PSA 3 with a perfect 10 autograph. The card, which you can see here, sold for an incredible $78,000.

Technically, it’s a signed Joe DeMaggio card as Zee-Nut has a typo of his last name. But make no mistake — this is the Yankee Clipper as pictured his minor league San Francisco Seals team. Like many Zee-Nut cards, this one was missing the coupon at the bottom. But when you’re dealing with such a rarity, that did little to keep the price down.

Autographed pre-war cards are somewhat rare but autographed minor league issues of world class players are virtually impossible.

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