Woman finds 139-year-old baseball card in box of antiques [Forum Archive]

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Woman finds 139-year-old baseball card in box of antiques

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Posted by: Fetusaurus Rex

Woman finds 139-year-old baseball card in box of antiques - Big League Stew... - MLB - Yahoo! Sports

The strange story goes like this: Last summer, Bernice Gallego pulled an old baseball card from a box of antiques. She figured it might be worth something to someone, so she listed it on eBay.

The starting bid was $10.

But after getting a flurry of inquiries about whether the card was authentic or not, Gallego started to suspect she was holding something a little more valuable and immediately ended the auction.

Turns out her hunch was correct. She did have something more valuable. The card she found was made in 1869 and featured the "Red Stocking B.B. Club of Cincinnati," the sport's first professional team. It's considered one of the first baseball cards ever produced and its actual value could be worth more than $100,000 when she puts it back on eBay (with a higher starting price, of course).

Of course, the news that she had found a rare piece of early baseball history came as a shock to the 72-year-old Fresno, Calif., resident who said she's never been to a baseball game. Her tale, from unwitting discovery to learning about the card's history, is wonderfully captured by our old pal Mike Osegueda of the Fresno Bee. Click here to read it.

From the Fresno Bee:

"When I came to meet her and she took it out of a sandwich Baggie and she was smoking a cigarette, I almost fainted," (collector Rick) Mirigian says.

"They've uncovered a piece of history that few people will ever be able to imagine or comprehend. And it comes out of Fresno," he says. "That card is history. It's like unearthing a Mona Lisa or a Picasso."

Gallego said she doesn't know exactly where the box of antiques came from since she and her husband are collectors and frequently buy lots from different estates around California. She does have a history of being lucky, though, having once won $250,000 on a slot machine.

(And with that, I'm off to see what I can find in my basement.)

Posted by: Fetusaurus Rex

This is awesome hahah, lucky lady....and her face is priceless lol

Posted by: IronAddict

Wow! That would definately make my day!

Posted by: ecco

I have to check my Pokémon cards.

Posted by: Fetusaurus Rex

Originally Posted by ecco

I have to check my Pokémon cards.

YouTube Video

I think this kid found what you are looking for....

Posted by: Little Wing

i got this little gem for far less than it's value... maybe i should pay more attention to baseball cards.

Posted by: IronAddict

Originally Posted by Little Wing

i got this little gem for far less than it's value... maybe i should pay more attention to baseball cards.

That's a real nice piece of art!

I love black & whites, that would look great in my bedroom!

Posted by: Little Wing

Originally Posted by IronAddict

That's a real nice piece of art!

I love black & whites, that would look great in my bedroom!

it's small. the artwork itself only measures 4x8. i love it too, if it were bigger i'd keep it myself but i put it on ebay yesterday. i usually just buy for the frames but this is a really cool piece, the second i saw it i knew it was something special.

Posted by: IronAddict

Originally Posted by Little Wing

Darn, I would have purchased that if it were larger.

But, you do have an exquisite eye for art!

Posted by: min0 lee

Originally Posted by ecco

I have to check my Pokémon cards.

Posted by: maniclion

When my GF's grandfather died I was going through his boxes and boxes of old paperwork and found $200 in a birthday card from 1982 I guess he must have forgot the money was in there and just filed it away. We also found an uncashed checks ranging from 100's to 3000 dollars. He had so much money he could forget to take checks to the bank....it made me sick there was about $5000 worth of checks, I could've bought a damn nice computer with that...

Posted by: Little Wing

Originally Posted by IronAddict

Darn, I would have purchased that if it were larger.

But, you do have an exquisite eye for art!

thanks. i'm kinda hoping no one buys it, but not selling things you like can become a very bad habit.

Posted by: soxmuscle

My Dad will always tell the story about how my Grandmother cleaned out the attic when he went to college only to come home to find that his baseball cards had all been thrown away.

It's an estimate of course, but there's a good chance my Grandmother threw the equivalent of $100,000 dollars in the garbage.

20-30 shoe boxes full of cards from the 50's and 60's would be worth a lot of money right now.

Posted by: Mudge

Baseball cards lost a lot of value since the strike unfortunately.

Interesting to see a card more rare than the Ty Cobbs cigar card though!

Posted by: Fetusaurus Rex

Originally Posted by soxmuscle

My Dad will always tell the story about how my Grandmother cleaned out the attic when he went to college only to come home to find that his baseball cards had all been thrown away.

It's an estimate of course, but there's a good chance my Grandmother threw the equivalent of $100,000 dollars in the garbage.

20-30 shoe boxes full of cards from the 50's and 60's would be worth a lot of money right now.

a lot of people have that story, I think that is why the cards are so rare and valuable, but yea that would suck

Posted by: Little Wing

Originally Posted by Little Wing

i got this little gem for far less than it's value... maybe i should pay more attention to baseball cards.

now that it sold i can say... i got this for a $1.50 and sold it for $75. it appraised for between $50 n $100 so good deal for me and the buyer.

Posted by: MuscleResearch

Who just has that stuff laying around? Old people I guess. I hope I"ll have a box of random things worth money in 60 years..

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Woman finds 139-year-old baseball card in box of antiques

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