Blog Post

An E98 Ty Cobb.

Over the last few months that I’ve been writing for Collectors Quest, I’ve become hyper-aware of the fact that the majority of my posts revolve around baseball and its associated collectables. The fact is, it’s baseball season right now, and baseball’s my second-favorite sport to football—and football’s last season ended just after I started writing for the blog. Add to that the idea that baseball is the “National Pastime” and that baseball cards themselves are more or less the items of memorabilia that launched the sports collecting industry as a whole, and it’s tough to get away from this crazy game.

The sport’s importance in the world of collecting in particular and America at large is illustrated pretty well in a story that’s been making national headlines this week. According to the Associated Press, a man named Karl Kissner in Defiance, Ohio was cleaning out his grandfather’s attic when he came across a cardboard box full of baseball cards. As he discovered later, the cards—which were numbered at over 700 in quantity—were from a rare series referred to as E98. The AP story explains that the cards come from the year 1910, and that it’s not even known who manufactured the E98s, or how many are in existence. In addition, but the only cards previously known to have come from that set have been in average condition. The ones found by Kissner are “nearly pristine, untouched for more than a century. The colors are vibrant, the borders crisp and white.”

Said Kissner of the discovery, which experts are valuing conservatively at $3 million:

“It’s like finding the Mona Lisa in the attic. […]

We guess he stuck them in the attic and forgot about them. They remained there frozen in time.”

The collection includes cards of legendary players like the Detroit Tigers’ Ty Cobb and Pittsburgh Pirates’ Honus Wagner, for a start. There were 16 Cobbs in the collection, all of which were graded as 9s. It’s important to note that previously the best E98 Cobb had been graded at a 7, says the article. Even more impressive is that the Wagner was graded as a solid 10—in other words, perfect.

A 10 graded E98 Honus Wagner.

Heritage Auctions is currently accepting bids for the Wagner card, and will be until August 1. At this point, it’s already at $60,000, and there’s no question that its value will continue to climb before the end of the sale. A total of 36 other cards from the collection are being auctioned off by Heritage this time around, while the auction house will be selling other cards from the collection over the next few years so as not to flood the market with the sudden glut of E98s.

The find represents an interesting aspect of America and its place within the world. In most other parts of the globe, there are all kinds of hidden treasures of the past that can be unearthed by lucky folks who dig in the right spot—relics of the old world and the people who used to live there. But for people who live in America—still a relatively young country—the greatest things we can find are usually baseball cards. Sure, their rarity is one of the reasons why we place such huge value on finds like that, but I have a feeling that baseball itself runs pretty deep in our DNA. Old baseball cards are the closest thing we’ll ever have to buried pirate treasure.

And the fact that Wagner played for the Pirates just proves my point.

[Via Associated Press]