A young Colorado collector who lost his collection and just about everything else he owned in a recent house fire had something to smile about over the weekend.
12-year-old Adam Martinez sustained burns while trying to put the fire out with a garden hose.
When he heard what happened, Mike Fruitman of Mike’s Stadium Sportscards and the regular customers who visit his shop decided to help rebuild Adam’s collection. He told Adam to pick out what he wanted from his favorite teams and players and then kept piling up the gifts. One of his employees even gave up part of his own collection to help the youngster.
“My shop has been lucky the last 30 years and when I heard of someone who lost their collection and so much more, it wasn’t a matter of how much, it was just when,” Mike told us. “There were collectors in the shop who started pulling from their collections and another stopped in with some more Raiders cards.
Denver’s ABC affiliate started a fundraising page for the family and a news crew stopped by the shop on the day Adam came to visit. Watch their story below:
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A small group of collectors who created the online ‘Baseball Card Hall of Fame’ with annual elections have started the same thing with football cards.
Collectors can cast ballots from a preselected list of classic and popular cards from all eras. The cards that collect the most votes will be part of the inaugural “class” which will be announced the day before the Super Bowl.
There are 45 cards on the 2023 ballot and collectors can vote for 10 of them.
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The jerseys worn by LeBron James and Giannis Antetokounmpo during the NBA’s Christmas Day games are now among numerous holiday gamers on the market through NBA Auctions. The league’s auction arm has been offering them this month through its partnership with MeiGray.
James’ special white City Edition shirt was worn in the Lakers’ 124-115 loss to the Mavericks in Dallas. James played 34 minutes and registered a game-high 38 points with a team-high 5 assists and 6 rebounds.
Antetokounmpo wore his white City Edition #34 in the first half of the Bucks’ loss to the Boston Celtics.
Others worn by members of the Bucks, Lakers, Celtics, Sixers, Mavs and Nuggets are among those up for grabs, with bids closing over the next couple of weeks.
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Shawn Vuocolo and his team from Finding Nostalgia, a sports memorabilia and appraisal firm in Williamsport PA, recently secured a significant cache of vintage NFL and AFL footballs from a number of private collectors. The collection spans various eras of pro football from the 1940’s to the 1970’s.
Among the rarities was a 1966 AFL Spalding J5-V football with Oakland Raiders owner, Al Davis, stamped as commissioner. Davis’ tenure as AFL commissioner lasted only four months, representing a snapshot of the time preceding the NFL/AFL merger.
The ball is signed by Len Dawson and Otis Taylor and came from a former Kansas City Chiefs’ employee.
Also uncovered: a white leather Thorp Sporting Goods Wilson NFL football that is dated to 1954. The white leather footballs were utilized for night games until 1956.
That one, too, is autographed by multiple members of the San Francisco 49ers.
“We have never encountered such a substantial amount (39) of Wilson Thorp Sporting Goods NFL Footballs. Not to mention the 15 Spalding AFL Footballs,” Vuocolo stated. Quite remarkable.”
There are approximately 85 footballs, in total, being exhibited and offered at Finding Nostalgia.
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