In mid-afternoon a few weeks ago, Brian Drent received a mind-blowing phone call. “Hello, I have some unopened full boxes and almost full boxes from the 1950s and 1960s that I am considering for your auction,” said the man on the other end.
The box still contains 19 of 24 unopened packs of 1948 Bowman baseball cards likely worth $500,000.
Photo by Mile High Card Co.
The box still contains 19 of 24 unopened wax packs of 1948 Bowman baseball cards likely worth $500,000.
Drent, the president of the Mile High Card Company politely asked for specifics. The caller revealed that he had boxes of early 1960s Topps and Fleer football, 1959 Fleer Ted Williams, and many other sealed packs. They all had been found fairly recently in his 90-year-old aunt’s attic in Tennessee after his uncle passed away. For more than half a century, the uncle had kept packs untouched in a Stroh’s beer box almost as old as the cards themselves.
By the way, there was also a 1961 Fleer Basketball unopened box of wax packs, probably containing the rookie cards of Hall of Famers Wilt Chamberlain, Jerry West, and Oscar Robertson. Drent was almost speechless.
The 1948 Bowman baseball set is loaded with rookies and Hall of Famers such as Yogi Berra.
Photo by Mile HIgh Card Co.
The 1948 Bowman baseball set is loaded with rookies and Hall of Famers such as Yogi Berra.
But in a classic case of burying the headline, the stranger unwittingly saved the best for last: “Oh, and I have a box, it’s only 19 of the 24 packs, but it’s a Play Ball box from 1948. Wait, no, it’s 1948 Bowman.” While the display box made no mention of the manufacturer, an opened pack of little black and white cards clearly showed that they were by the Philadelphia gum company from the first year that it made a milestone set.
More:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidseideman/2017/05/30/beer-box-of-old-baseball-cards-found-in-aunts-attic-likely-to-top-a-million-dollars/@EasyAce @musiclady - you were mentioning baseball cards, and this hit my feed. Enjoy!
