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Arizona Woman Has Baseball Worth Thousands

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NATALIE ALLEN, CNN ANCHOR: It is small and round and worth several thousands of dollars, and it was right under their noses the whole time.

A great story for you from now, from Dan Bryan (ph) of CNN station KVOA in Tucson.

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DAN BRYAN, KVOA REPORTER (voice-over): The letter showed up on my desk last week. In short, it stated, there was this baseball, and on it were some signatures of the New York Yankees. As it turned out, it was like saying I have this necklace, it came from the Titanic, do you think it's worth something.

This ball has been in the possession of an Arizona women for some 30 years. For security purposes. we'll just call her Nellie. This ball was wrapped up in a plastic sandwich bag, and I wasn't prepared for what I was about to see.

It's roster of the 1961 New York Yankees, one of the greatest teams of all time. There's Roger Maris, Larry "Yogi" Berra, Ed "Whitey" Ford, and Mickey Mantles's original signature before he started adding those big looping Ms.

So what's the story behind this ball? Nellie says...

"NELLIE," BASEBALL OWNER: Then I have this friend. His name's John, and he got this baseball, and he was showing it to me, and I said, I'm a big Yankee fan. Why don't you give me the ball, and he said, OK, here. He gave me the ball, and I've had it since, with no idea of what I was going to do with the ball until recently.

I thought, what am I doing with this ball if I can get some use out of it in my later years and enjoy my life a little bit more. I have not had a vacation for at least seven or eight years. I want to take a trip.

BRYAN: Initial estimates on just seven signatures have placed a value on this ball at about $5,500. That's on seven autographs. This 68-year-old Yankee fan had a hunch that someday this ball might be worth something.

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