A California made made the discovery of a lifetime when cleaning out his late father’s home.
In a closet he found more than 600 rare, vintage baseball cards, including Babe Ruth, “Shoeless” Joe Jackson and Ty Cobb.
And, they were stored in an early 1900s Pedro Cut Plug Tobacco tin, said Auction Monthly in a news release, which will sell the cards.
Auction Monthly said the man’s father began collecting the cards as a kid growing up in Oakland, California, in the early 1920s.
“I couldn’t believe what was inside the old tobacco tin when I first opened the lid and noticed more than 600 pre-war baseball cards were all well preserved in the box,” said Brandon, Auction Monthly’s vice president. “When I opened the old tin, I was surprised to see iconic names like Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, ‘Shoeless’ Joe Jackson, Walter Johnson and Christy Mathewson. I began to imagine what it was like to be a kid in the 1920′s chasing the game’s current greats.”
The collection also includes hundreds of rare Hall of Famers.
“As I was digging deeper into the tobacco tin, I noticed several cards from the 1919 ‘Black Sox’ team and then I pulled the ‘Shoeless’ Joe Jackson card – a very rare find,” Brandon said. “The 1919 Chicago White Sox were nicknamed ‘Black Sox’ for being involved in the greatest scandal [game fixing] in baseball history. One of the greatest hitters of all time, ‘Shoeless’ Joe Jackson, was part of the legendary ‘Black Sox’ team.”
Auction Monthly said highlights include:
- 1919-21 W514 ‘Shoeless’ Joe Jackson
- Nearly every player from the 1919 ‘Black Sox’ team
- 1921 E220 National Caramel Babe Ruth
- 1922 American Caramel E121 Babe Ruth
- 1919-21 Babe Ruth W514
- 1920 W519 Babe Ruth
- Ty Cobb 1922 American Caramel E121
- 1921 W516 Ty Cobb
- 1920 W519 George Sisler
Auction Monthly said the cards will be made available to the public but no date for the auction was provided.
