Collector brings historic Jackie Robinson contracts to Canada

Growing up in suburban Chicago Mykalai Kontilai was an avid collector of baseball cards. The lifelong Cubs fan once owned every baseball card from 1943 to 1983.

In 2013, when the opportunity presented itself to purchase the original papers documenting Jackie Robinson’s contract with the Montreal Royals and Brooklyn Dodgers, it was an opportunity the self-proclaimed serial collector of baseball memorabilia could not pass up.

“When we found out they were actually available, we thought it was the greatest find, perhaps, in collectibles history and we made an investment to acquire them with the understanding we would be temporary stewards of them and that eventually we would an institution or a foundation to acquire them from us,” Kontilai explained. “They're not for sale unless the right institution or right museum came to us and at that time we would be gladly willing to sell them and make them timelessly available for the ages in a museum or something of that nature.”

The documents were initially purchased by a historian decades ago, and locked up in a safety deposit box for up to 70 years. They resurfaced in 2009 when a New York-based document collector purchased them. Kontilai became aware of the documents when the second collector passed away.

Kontilai, who now spends his time split between New York and California won’t disclose his purchase price, but says he paid seven figures for the documents, adding, “It's much more than $1 million, I can tell you that. It's in the millions.”

The documents purchased by Kontilai, and his company Collectors Cafe, is the minor league contract signed by Robinson in 1945 with the Montreal Royals, and his contract signed in 1947 with the Brooklyn Dodgers.

Prior to purchasing the historical documents from the estate of the man who kept them, Kontilai went to great lengths to authenticate the contracts.

“The contracts were authenticated by three different world renowned experts one gentleman named Seth Kaller, he's probably the top document expert in the world,” said Kontilai. “He actually appraised the documents as well at US $36 million. He's handled many documents like the Emancipation Proclamationand the Declaration of Independence.

“Then we had a gentleman named John Reznikoff from University Archives, who is one of the top historical document authenticators and then a gentleman named James Spence Jr. from JSA who used to be the head authenticator for PSA so the three of them all authenticated the documents. We independently did that before we purchased the contracts.”

The contracts aren’t just a historical baseball document according to Collectors Cafe brand ambassador, and retired American television and radio host, Larry King.

“When (Larry) interviewed Martin Luther King in the '60s, on his radio show, he introduced Martin Luther King as the founder of the civil rights movement. Dr. Martin Luther King interrupted Larry and said 'Mr. King, I don't mean to interrupt, but I am not the founder of the civil rights movement, Jackie Robinson is the founder of the civil rights movement' and we have that on tape from Larry,” Kontilai said. “That's pretty amazing that these documents really, according to Martin Luther King, started the civil rights movement.”

In April, Kontilai, the founder and CEO launched Collectors Cafe, a global social network and auction house for the collectibles world – a project he worked on for eight years.

Along with Collectors Cafe, Kontilai created authenticity insurance, which provides buyers with items that are insured with real insurance policies.

“Collectors Cafe, we feel is a seminal company,” he said. “We're the first social network and auction house for the world of collectibles, and historically, we're the only auction house where you can buy a collectible now that's authenticity-insured by the top insurance companies in the world: Lloyds of London, AIG. Liberty Mutual, Chubb - so when you buy something on our website, the insurance companies underwrite a real insurance copy. We believe we're commoditizing the collectibles industry.”

Kontilai initially unveiled the Robinson documents in Times Square last month on the 69th anniversary of the signing of the contract. Over the weekend he toured them around Ontario. Within the next 30 days, Kontilai plans to have them on display in Montreal.

“We're going to probably do a 15-20 city tour then we're just going to sit back and make them available whenever people request to have them seen - schools, state libraries and hopefully an acquirer will come forward whether it be a museum or somebody who will permanently be in the right place to have them on display,” Kontilai said.