Little League ball signed by 12-year-old Mike Trout sells for $15,600 at auction

Here's a little advice for all you Little League parents out there: Get your kid to sign a baseball for you right now. If they wind up turning into a future MLB Hall of Famer, you could profit in a big way years down the road.

That's almost precisely what happened with Mike Trout's uncle. Trout's uncle, Kevin, decided to sell a Little League ball signed by Mike when he was 12, and the ball sold for $15,600 at Robert Edward Auctions on Sunday.

Trout apparently signed the ball for his uncle after hitting a home run during a Little League game. Kevin then held on to that ball for two decades before deciding it was time to sell. In addition to the ball, a picture of Trout in his Little League uniform was included in the lot. Robert Edward Auctions billed the picture as "one of the earliest photos of Trout in a baseball uniform."

Bidding for those items started at $2,500 and slowly increased over the next few weeks. Roughly 24 hours before the auction closed, 27 bids jumped the price from $4,300 to $15,600.

While the cost of Trout's Little League ball didn't break any records, it was an impressive figure. Trout's being a future MLB Hall of Famer probably has a lot to do with that. A Little League ball signed by an average player probably isn't fetching anywhere near $10,000.