It’s only August but Chris Rothe is probably a hands down favorite for “Luckiest Collector of the Year.” The Maryland resident dropped $500 on the 20-spot 1955 Bowman cello pack break conducted by Vintage Breaks and landed the now famous Mickey Mantle card with a value that might be more than 100 times that amount. While a few dozen in the audience at the National Sports … [Read more...]
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Vintage Breaks Scores by Opening Mini Time Capsules
The National Sports Collectors Convention is usually a productive weekend for those who make their living in sports cards. Sometimes it even alters fortune. Vintage Breaks, a year-old offshoot of vintage card specialist Just Collect, found itself in national news headlines after its big moment in the NSCC spotlight become even bigger. An ultra-rare 1955 Bowman cello pack it … [Read more...]
Updated: 1955 Bowman Cello Break Steals the Show at National Sports Collectors Convention
It was sealed at Bowman Gum Company's Philadelphia plant 63 years ago and stayed that way until Friday afternoon. A 1955 Bowman 20-card cello pack, now valued at somewhere around $10,000 was opened on the main stage at the National Sports Collectors Convention. The hope was that the pack of the condition-sensitive issue would at least contain some common cards that were … [Read more...]
Vintage Cases, Boxes Highlight Collect Auctions Catalog
A fresh grouping of vintage unopened wax, cello and vending boxes are on the auction block this week as Collect Auctions wraps up their final auction of 2017. The lineup includes a 1988-89 Fleer Basketball unopened wax case (current bid $18,366); a 1978 Topps Football unopened 15-box cello case with the original Topps shipping label; a 1979 Topps Football unopened rack … [Read more...]
1960 Topps Tattoos Among Company’s Quirkier Sets
When most collectors think of Topps, their mind generally goes to baseball cards. But the company produced a wide variety of non-card issues and the 1960 Topps Tattoos release was a unique collectible. Tattoos? Yup...well, sort of. There was no artist needed, no painful procedures--and any regrets could be quickly washed away. Here's a bit more on this oddball … [Read more...]
Uncut Sheets, Vintage Cards Highlight Wheatland Auction
A collector’s stash of dozens of uncut sheets from Topps products of the past are among hundreds of items now up for grabs in Wheatland Auctions’ Vintage Sports Card and Memorabilia online catalog. The collection includes semi-high and high number sheets from the 1970 Topps baseball set, a super scarce 1972 Topps Third Series football sheet, multiple sheets of 1974, ’75, ’82 … [Read more...]
Beer Box II Auction Opens Monday, But There’s More
The sequel to the “Beer Box Find” will get much of the attention when Mile High Card Company opens its big fall catalog auction Monday but if unopened boxes from decades ago aren’t your thing, there is plenty of other high-end material in what could be the biggest auction in the company’s 20+ year history. Led by an ultra-high end DeLong complete set, a 1951 Bowman #305 … [Read more...]
New Wave of Rare, Vintage Unopened Packs Coming to Auction
The improbable “Beer Box Find” that brought a treasure trove of rare vintage unopened boxes to the market several weeks ago has a sequel in the works. Mile High Card Company will offer several more vintage unopened wax boxes in its September auction--including one full AND one nearly full 1965 Topps Football wax box--all originating with the same Tennessee family that had … [Read more...]
Were 1948 Bowman Packs a Reasonable Deal?
If the new owner of the hobby’s most expensive unopened packs would opt to open just one, he could probably sell tickets to the viewing party. While the 1948 Bowman set isn’t the most attractive piece of hobby history, the story of the find and the resulting auction is the stuff of legend. Opening a 69-year-old time capsule you never knew existed is great … [Read more...]
1948 Bowman Baseball Packs Sell for $521,180
A forgotten cache of unopened boxes and packs of decades-old baseball, football and basketball cards turned turned into a high six-figure windfall for a Tennessee-based consignor early Friday morning as Mile High Card Company's auction came to a close. As we first reported last month, the group was headlined by a one-of-a-kind partial box of 19 packs of 1948 … [Read more...]
