For virtually his entire life, Matt Bartman’s uncle lived in the same Allentown, PA, row home where he and Matt’s father grew up over 70 years ago. When his uncle passed away a few months ago, Matt began cleaning out the home. The attic contained antiques, toys from the 1950s, World War 2 gear—and a couple of boxes of trading cards.
“My dad remembered there being cards up there but not to the degree we found,” Matt recalled. “When the first one we pulled out was Warren Spahn I said, ‘Uh, can I see?’
There were over 650 in all—not counting the ones he couldn’t identify. About 400 were baseball including Jackie Robinson and Roy Campanella rookie cards, early 1950s Bowman and several other Hall of Famers (none of Mickey Mantle, unfortunately). There were about 100 1950 Bowman football cards including a pair of Bobby Layne.
Matt’s uncle was a boxer, so there were also 100 cards from the Hassan and Mecca sets that dated back over 100 years including both T218 Series 2 Jack Johnson cards and a near complete set of T220s.
There were some vintage non-sports cards too, including National Chicle Sky Birds from 1934 and multiple boxes of old Ring Magazines.
Matt is working with an auction house to get the better cards graded and sent to market.
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You might recall the story we brought you in August about two finds of T206 cards that had been acquired by Jeff Weisenberg of National Card Investors and his partners.
Some of the cards in the smaller find featured the rare Carolina Brights ad on the back. Those cards are now up for auction.
The cards were set to be thrown away when the consignor’s family member saved them from the trash and decided to see if they had any value.
The “Carolina Brights horde” is expected to sell between $250,000 to $500,000. A rare T206 Ty Cobb card in the collection is estimated to sell for $50,000.
Cards from the other find are being sold through Heritage Auctions, including a copy of the rare Sherry “Magie” error card now graded PSA 1.
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In the words of Steve Martin, let’s get small.
2022 Topps Mini Baseball is out, but it’ll take some effort to put a set together, if that’s your goal.
The company has produced the entire 990 card base set from Topps’ flagship releases (Series 1, Series 2, and Update Series) in a smaller style.
The product is being sold as an online exclusive. In addition to the base cards, there are base card variation parallels, 1987-style inserts and and autographs randomly inserted (including mini booklet cards).
Boxes are being sold via this page on Topps website, where more details are available. Boxes have 35 cards including three base parallels and two insert cards.
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Donovan Mitchell’s first Cavs jersey is up for auction, by the way. His Statement Edition jersey from Opening Night of the 2022-23 season is at NBA Auctions, with bidding set to run through Nov. 29.
Jerseys worn by Giannis Antetokounmpo, LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Ja Morant, Joel Embiid and others are also on the block this month.
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