Pick up the phone or answer an email from someone who has some baseball cards to sell and more often than not, the end result is that you’re a bearer of bad news. Time and again, you have to tell the inquiring and usually overconfident seller that, no, those “old” cards from the 1980s and early 90s aren’t going to pay off their mortgage.
Once in a while, though, there’s a collection worth going to see.
Sometimes there’s one worth flying cross country for.
Rarer still is when the collection located on the other side of the continent turns out to be better than you could have possibly imagined.
Early this fall, two brothers from Arizona got in touch with Leighton Sheldon of Just Collect in New Jersey about a family heirloom collection they had recently—and unexpectedly—uncovered. After their father passed away, they opened a large safe deposit box and inside were stacks of 1930s baseball cards. The cards had apparently been collected by the brothers’ grandfather who passed them on to his son.
They wanted to find out what the cards were worth and connected with Just Collect as part of their research. As Sheldon requested, they sent photos of some of the cards from the collection. The images revealed a couple of 1933 Goudey Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig cards and sheer quantity was enough for Sheldon to decide he needed to go see the collection for himself.
It wasn’t until he flew into Phoenix and walked into the house where he would meet the owners that he saw those few Ruths and Gehrigs were just a sampling.
“There were about 600 1933 Goudey cards and a total of over 800 total Goudey baseball cards from the 1930s spread out on several tables throughout their living room,” Sheldon wrote later.
While the cards weren’t anywhere close to mint, the majority were in respectable shape. “They weren’t even in any holders. Every card was loose,” Sheldon recalled.
Better still, was that the collection contained a horde of the two biggest icons of the era.
Alongside piles of Goose (Goslin), Rabbit (Maranville), Curly (Ogden) and three Heinies (Schuble, Manush and Sand), were no less than 12 of Babe Ruth and ten featuring Lou Gehrig.
There were three of Ruth’s #144 ’33 Goudey card, four of #181, two of #53 and three of #149.
There were five of Gehrig’s virtually identical ’33 Goudey cards (#92 and #160), along with three of card #67 from the 1934 set and two of #61 from that follow-up issue.
The collection also featured dozens of other Hall of Famers from what’s generally considered one of the most popular of all pre-War baseball card sets. The bulks of the collection had been pulled from packs of Boston-based Goudey’s gum packs.
“There were also a few Diamond Stars, Sport Kings and miscellaneous cards,” Sheldon told SC Daily. “My guess is they grew up in an area where Goudeys were largely available.”
Sheldon spent about four hours evaluation the condition of the cards. Most were “solid low to mid-grade, very few beaters,” he says. He finished his calculations and relayed his offer to the brothers. After a private discussion, they opted to sell the cards to Just Collect.
Sheldon packed them back in the original box in which they had been stored and headed to a local Wells Fargo Bank with the brothers where a certified check was cut. He was soon on his way to the airport, headed back to New Jersey, pink box in hand and still-shell shocked at the “Arizona Goudey Find.”
“I live for trips like this,” he says.
The collection is currently on display at the company’s new shop in Millburn, NJ.
The Ruths, Gehrigs and numerous other Hall of Famers will soon be graded and put up for sale.
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