‘Black Swamp Find’ of 1910 E98 Cards Heading to Auction

If you’ve ever wondered anything printed a century ago once looked as snow white as things do today, wonder no more.  Heritage Auctions will offer a group of  virtually untouched cards from the  E98 baseball card set issued in 1910 during its auction that begins later this month.

The auction house is calling it “The Black Swamp” find after the area in northwest Ohio where the cards were found, sitting underneath an old dollhouse.  They had apparently never seen the light of day since they were taken in by the original owners.  In a catalog description, Heritage says the granddaughter of a family that ran a meat market is the source for the cards.

E98s originated with an unknown manufacturer but were distributed with caramel candy.

Now graded, the cards from the Black Swamp Find represent one of the most improbable finds in hobby history.   The majority of the cards have been graded between NM-MT 8 and MT 9 by PSA.

The E98 Honus Wagner card found with the group was graded 10 by PSA.  Prior to the find, a PSA 5 was the highest graded example in the company’s Set Registry.  An SGC 88 (near mint ‘8’) sold for $16,440 in another recent auction.

A PSA 7 Cobb sold at auction five years ago for nearly $29,000.  The card from this find has been graded 9.

27 of the 30 cards in the set are being offered in one lot, which you can see here.

The sale will close during a live auction on Thursday, August 2 during the week of the National Sports Collectors Convention.

The find has made a celebrity out of the man who found them while he and his cousin went through a small attic, seemingly lost in time.  Karl and Karla Kissner weren’t sure what they had.

Some E98 cards are on eBay now (see below), with more added after news of the phenomenal Black Swamp Find reached mainstream media.  For much more on the find, click here.

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About Rich Mueller

Rich is the editor and founder of Sports Collectors Daily. A broadcaster and writer for more than 30 years and a collector for even longer than that, he's usually typing something somewhere. Type him back at [email protected]