A Colorado man has been reunited with a collection of vintage baseball cards, 24 years after he put them in a safe deposit box in a bank in Crested Butte.
“I thought these were gone forever,” said the man identified only as Jere. “I never imagined they would be sitting in a vault at the Colorado State Capitol.”
Jere’s safe deposit box was turned over to the State of Colorado as unclaimed property after the bank tried unsuccessfully to get ahold of him several years ago. “I got busy and left and lived in Europe for about ten years,” he said. “I have a bunch of stuff from my dad and my uncle from the 1950s and 60s.”
His eight-year-old son recently asked about cards and Jere remembered his collection. He then began a quest to find out what happened to it and the bank where he’d originally stored them in 1998 put him in touch with the Colorado State Treasurer’s Office, where they’d been sent as unclaimed property.
It took about six months for him to get the documentation to prove they were his.
The state didn’t say how many cards were in the box, but showed off 1956 Topps cards of Roberto Clemente and Yogi Berra, a low grade 1950 Bowman Berra, a 1960 Carl Yastrzemski rookie and a 1911 Hassan Triple Folders card.
His father is still alive and Jere said he planned to show the cards to him this week.
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Collectable is partnering with eBay for a variety of initiatives. Full details will be released at a later date, but look for special auctions to take place on eBay’s platform. Collectable has also committed over five million dollars of iconic, graded sports cards to the eBay Vault.
They’ll kick it off at the SCOPE Art Show in Miami, FL from November 29 – December 4.
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Here’s a look at the most watched graded rookie card auctions on eBay at the moment with some key hockey cards camping out near the top of the list.
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There’s a new entry in the sports card and memorabilia auction business. New Jersey-based Taurus Auctions plans to offer multiple online catalogs per year.
Its current offerings include items cultivated from a variety of private collectors in the New York, New Jersey and Connecticut area. Highlights include numerous sealed 2000 football card boxes with possible Tom Brady rookie cards, a PSA certified Jackie Robinson autographed menu, a 1947 Brooklyn Dodgers scrapbook with 26 cut signatures including Robinson, Gil Hodges, Roy Campanella and Pee Wee Reese, vintage World Series ticket stubs, 1970s MLB dugout lineup cards, a Yankee Stadium seat, a PSA certified baseball signed by Thurman Munson, Michael Jordan rookie cards, and other individual vintage and modern cards.
The current auction runs through Nov. 30 on the company’s website.
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Fanatics plans a fresh auction set to open shortly. Among the items that will be on the block:
- Penny Hardaway Orlando Magic Autographed NBA Debut Game Ticket vs. Houston Rockets on October 15, 1993
- Joel Embiid Philadelphia 76ers Game-Used Jordan Brand #21 Statement Jersey vs. Miami Heat on May 8, 2022
- Jaylen Brown Boston Celtics Game-Used Nike Jersey vs. Miami Heat in 2022 NBA Eastern Conference Finals
- Paul Goldschmidt Arizona Diamondbacks Autographed & Inscribed Game-Used Franklin Batting Gloves vs. Pittsburgh Pirates on April 26, 2015
- Bill Russell Boston Celtics Autographed 2014/15 Panini Prestige Premium Old School Signatures #9 Card (SGC 8.5) – #9/15
- Deion Sanders Dallas Cowboys Autographed 2016 Panini Prizm Silver Prizm #PPP-DSD Card (PSA 9) – #1/10
- Nolan Arenado Colorado Rockies Autographed & Inscribed Career Hit 1,000 Game Ticket vs. Washington Nationals on April 22, 2019 (BAS 10)
- Boston Red Sox Game-Used Mookie Betts 100th Home Run Game Base vs. Kansas City Royals on July 6, 2018
- Tom Brady New England Patriots Autographed Superbowl XXXVIII Ticket with “SB 38 MVP” Inscription
- Aaron Judge New York Yankees Game-Used adidas Adizero Batting Gloves from 2021 MLB Season
The auction will run through Dec. 7.