Buy the contents of a storage unit and you’re more likely to come home with some old books and furniture, maybe an outdated piece of computer equipment or a piece of shelving.
Oh, there have been some that have yielded boxes of cards and one surrendered Terrell Owens’ old stuff. But in the sports memorabilia world, there’s never anything quite like what’s just been uncovered somewhere in the world of abandoned lockers.
There were boxes of wax packs inside one such forgotten unit in the Midwest but this time it wasn’t 1989 Topps and 1990 Fleer baseball. Making their way into the daylight for the first time in presumably a very long time was a partial case of 1986-87 Fleer basketball.
Yes, those. Yes, seven unopened boxes from the holy grail year for hoops. The ones that nearly always hold at least three or four Michael Jordan rookie cards and multiple Jordan rookie stickers (not to mention a bunch of other rookie cards of basketball icons).
The pristine boxes had been kept inside the case, according to Ken Goldin, the founder of Goldin Auctions, who has taken them in on consignment from the person who bought them at the auction, reportedly for under $1,000.
The boxes have already been authenticated and they’ll be offered in the Goldin’s spring auction beginning in April. Who originally owned them or when they were purchased may never be known.
Goldin is keeping details of the find close the vest for now, including the lucky consignor’s name, but is calling the impressive haul “the Midwest Storage Unit Find.”
It’s reminiscent of a similar discovery made just two years ago by Baseball Card Exchange, which responded to a seller in Missouri who had seven boxes he’d purchased from a local toy store and stuck away. The boxes still had the original 40-cent price stickers on the front of the wrappers.
The last 1986-87 Fleer unopened box sold at auction for $84,000 and in recent years, most good quality boxes have gone for $60,000 and up. Graded packs sell for over $1,000. A few are usually available on eBay.
Pay your storage unit bills, people.
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