Man finds 600 of the rarest, century-old baseball cards in late father’s closet

GRANITE BAY, Calif. (Gray News) – A man discovered a goldmine of more than 600 valuable 1920s baseball cards while cleaning out his late father’s northern California home.

According to a news release, some of the rarest vintage baseball cards were found stored in an old tobacco tin inside a closet, including ones for Babe Ruth, “Shoeless” Joe Jackson, and Ty Cobb.

Even the tobacco tin itself is from the early 1900s.

The collection belonged to a man named Ed, whose last name was not given. The news release said Ed was a longtime card collector, starting when he was a kid during the early 1920s.

Ed’s son said his father would often receive baseball cards from his uncles as gifts when he was a child.

“Like many of those who grew up in the Depression, my father and members of his family did not discard anything,” Ed’s son said in a statement. “When I was young, elementary school age, I remember my father showing me the cards and the tin they were in.”

Among the 600 cards in the tin were some of the most sought-after vintage baseball cards, including:

• 1919-21 W514 “Shoeless” Joe Jackson
• Nearly every player from the iconic 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

The century-old collection of rare baseball cards will be sold by Auction Monthly.

Auction Monthly’s vice president said in a statement that he “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.”

The auction house did not give an estimate of what the collection is worth.