Florida Man Makes Huge T206 Attic Find
Sports Collectors Digest
By T.S. O'Connell
(April 20, 2002)
> > UPDATE:
This amazing Florida find will be available on eBay in four different
time periods starting from April 15, 2002 in a 10-days auction.
Please preview the checklist of the first upcoming available 120 cards:
>
First Auction: April 15, 2002 (120 cards)
It's the stuff of hobby lore and legend and the kind of thing that the
cynical often suggest just doesn't happen all that much anymore. We're
talking about rummaging around in an attic and finding pristine cards of
Hall of Famers from an era almost 100 years in the past.
But that's exactly what happened earlier this year to a man who was
refurbishing a home in Florida, and just to make it more interesting,
the gentleman in question was from Europe and only recently settled in
the United States. It will surprise absolutely no one in the hobby that
the man has asked that his name not be revealed. That's another fairly
well-known tradition in the hobby.
He didn't know much about baseball cards when he popped open one of those
antique trunks in the attic shortly after closing on a house in southern
Florida, but he saw and understood enough to know that more investigation
was in order.
"I was looking to renovate the house and the realtor seemed unenthusiastic,"
said the lucky homeowner. "The house was a mess, with a jungle for a yard,
but there was somebody living in it. The people even took a number of large
antiques with them when they moved out."
But they didn't take the trunk, and the man, who couldn't tell Ty Cobb from
Tai Babalonia, started pulling out the cards from the top tray of the trunk.
The cards were mingled in with literally hundreds of letters and postcards,
and Cobb was indeed present (Bat On Shoulder and Green Background versions
from the White Border set), along with the Sherry Magie rarity, a Nap Lajoie
and a couple cards each of Cy Young and Christy Mathewson, along with many
other Hall of Famers and several of the tough minor leaguers.
In all, he wound up with nearly 350 T206 White Border cards and a handful
of T205 Gold Borders. There were also nearly two-dozen of the 1916 Ferguson
Bakery Felt Pennants, including a really nice Joe Jackson. SCD Authentic
has graded the entire T206 stash. A Sherry Magie T206 "error" card is
graded SCD 5.5 (Excellent Plus), ranking it among the highest-graded
versions known in the hobby. As might be expected, this imposing array
of T206s (and the Felt Pennants) will likely be relegated to the auction
block, although no definite date has yet been set.
RELATED ARTICLES:
Florida T206 Find Checklist -- First Auction: April 15, 2002
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