The "Deal Of A Lifetime" Story

My brother, Steve, checking his eBay account.

It was an ordinary day.  My brother Steve  is showing me exactly how much money the 136 bubblegum cards have generated since he put them on eBay a day ago.  They will remain on the website a few more days then he will accept the highest bid and mail them to the winning bidder.  At the moment we were looking at the site, the cards had bids totaling $4,457.75.  Amazing considering he just bought the cards a few days ago.  

Some of the cards Steve has on eBay to bid on.

Seems that a fellow who deals in trading cards from all sports and who had a stand at the nearby Recreation Center one time a year, had died recently.  His widow decided to try her luck at selling some of the cards and also died.  This left the huge collection of cards to their adult son and daughter.  They decided they wanted to know the value of the collection so paid someone to evaluate the collection of cards and put a price on them.  

Rookie cards of famous baseball players.

The cards filled box after box and numbered close to 10,000 cards with some trophies and a signed Pete Rose baseball.  The retail value of the whole works was set at $50,000.  Many of the cards had been sent away over the years to a rating service that determined the authenticity of the cards and the condition they were in.  The price looked good to the owners and they asked for help from another dealer to try and sell them.  A few prices or bids came in with $14,000 being the highest and the owners thought someone was trying to rip them off not realizing the bids were made as wholesale bids.  

Signed rookie cards.

They took them off the market until recently when they needed some quick cash and asked for help once again to try and sell them.  My brother got wind of the cards and asked to see them and give a price for them.  He examined them and saw the condition and all the rookie cards from all sports and thought he would bid on them.  Steve found out that his bid was exactly the same as another one and decided to increase his bid.  He told the fellow that he would pay cash instead of a check and would give him the autographed baseball if he got the cards.  Viola!  

Early cards that were part of the deal.

I'm visiting with my brother, looking at the 10,000 cards that cost him $12,700.  And, the first 136 he put on eBay are now worth $4,457.75.  That doesn't include the signed cards from Willie Mays, Ted Williams, Yogi Berra, Jackie Robinson, Whitey Ford and quite a few others.  Doesn't include the signed rookie cards from Gil McDougald, Don Larsen, Billy Martin, Bob Feller, Ted Williams and others.  Doesn't even include the old-time cards from Connie Mack, Lefty Gomez, Vince Di Maggio and others which are both black and white as well as color.  And then there are the multiple unsigned rookie cards from Mays, Drysdale, Clemente, Banks, Kaline, Aaron, Maris, Mantle and a multitude of others.  

A few of the cards that had been graded.

He also pulled out the graded cards from Carlton, Schmidt, Frank Robinson, Bench, Rose and others.  What was really neat that he showed me were three signed rookie cards done as small trophies with football helmets that featured two Peyton Manning and one Johnny Unitas.  He pointed out at least three large boxes of cards that he hadn't even had a chance to look through yet.  

Rookie cards with small trophy and helmet.

A monu- mental task will follow!  Steve has been collecting sets of card and reselling them for years and he finally got the deal of a lifetime. Can't imagine how many hours will be needed to scan them and place them all on eBay and how many hours will be needed to package all the cards that were bid on and won by people who collect them.  Steve is extremely knowledgable about cards from all sports and will reap the rewards that he will finally receive for all his years of collecting and selling that he has done.  He happened to be in the right place at the right time and knew the right person.  And, he won't even miss the signed Pete Rose baseball.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.