Golf Balls -
Old and Antique Golf Balls Are Valuable

Golf Collectors just love buying old golf balls. For over two hundred years the ball has gone through an incredible change in both material and external patterns in the never ending quest of finding one that excels in performance. They are collected through each era of change.

First was the feather ball, consisting usually of goose feathers boiled and stuffed into a leather cover, used for over 200 years until about 1850.

This was superseded by the solid gutta percha commonly known as the gutty which was produced for around 50 years up to 1900. Firstly it was made completely smooth, followed by the hand hammered design and finally it became a moulded ball with the exterior lines shaped between two halves of a metal mould.

Left to Right - Sovereign bramble gutty........Hand hammered gutty......Mesh pattern gutty

The rubber core era followed with the creation of the Haskell ball patented in 1898. The rubber core, via many stages of developments along the way over the last 100 years has ended up as the dimple ball we play with today. During the early 1900’s balls were produced in different sizes, patterns and weights until 1921 when the British ball became a standard 1.62 size and the American ball 1.68. This remained so up to the early 1980’s, when uniformity by the R&A to the American size ball signified the end of the small ball. However experimentation with size was still on going with the introduction of the Jumbo 1.80 ball, but this was produced more for fun than with any serious intent.

But let’s look at the first real collectable ball and the most expensive to buy, The Feathery. An expensive item in its day as it took a skilled maker quite a while to produce a perfect ball. The ball maker would take three strips of leather stitch them together into a rough ball shape leaving a small opening, turn it inside out to hide the stitches and fill it with boiled goose feathers, more than a top hat full was needed. Then the ball would be left to dry and later painted with white lead paint, the maker would usually write his name and the weight on the ball and it was ready to play..

Because the feathery could easily be damaged during play, not too many are still around today. A distressed ball would be worth £1,000 upwards. But an unused ball still bearing white paint showing a top makers name could fetch up to £10,000. Often a feathery ball can be confused by the novice collector with a ball from a Victorian game called a Five’s Ball which has very little value. The biggest difference between the two is that the five’s ball shows external stitches running north to south. So firstly check the ball out with an expert just to make sure of what it is before parting with any money.

The smooth gutta percha ball that followed is quite rare and valuable up to £5000. Next followed the hand hammered ball. Its name was derived by the hundreds of small nick marks made into the cover with a hammer, less rare but can still have a value of a few thousand pounds if in good condition. Then came the line moulded gutty ball, condition is now of prime importance as there are still many of these balls around. A good one will still fetch £500, a used ball worth from £50 upwards.

Now for the most interesting period for most collectors, the more affordable rubber cored ball. From 1900 for the first twenty years of its life it was produced by many different manufacturers in different sizes and in particular with hundreds of different pattern covers. Some of them with such unusual patterns as the Map of the World for instance can realise a great deal of money, up to £8000. But most balls with a standard Bramble pattern cover or Square Dimple type will cost about £100 each if in either mint unused condition or better still in its wrapping. Balls from between 1900 up to 1950 are the most sort after. After 1950 most of the smaller ball making companies had disappeared along with their brands and the market was dominated by the big companies.

Left to Right - Square dimple rubber core.......Bramble rubber core......Triangular patern rubber core

Condition is still the most important consideration. Used balls will only be worth upwards from £5 each. But if you buy the same brand of ball still in its original wrapper it can be worth over £100 or more. So remember even though tempted DO NOT REMOVE the wrapper to look at the ball as all you will succeed in doing is removing the value.

Golf balls still remain collectable up to the 1980’s when the 1.68 ball arrived together with the dominance of the large American companies. Part of the reason is that balls were sold in an array of individual coloured wrappers up until then, but after the big ball arrived they were normally sold in see through cardboard sleeves just as they are today. Nowhere near as attractive to collect. Probably the most ubiquitous modern collected ball is the black wrapped Dunlop 65 from the early 80’s. If you have a dozen box of them in unopened condition they would be worth around £30.

Highly Collectable Wrapped Golf Balls
Good luck in your search of old golf bags and car boot sales for those valuable old and antique golf balls!