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Ohio
man
finds rare treasure in attic
DEFIANCE—
Karl Kissner picked up a soot-covered cardboard box that had been under
a
wooden dollhouse in his grandfather’s attic. Taking a look inside, he
saw
hundreds of baseball cards bundled with twine. They were smaller than
the ones
he was used to seeing.
But some of
the names were familiar: Hall of Famers Ty Cobb, Cy Young and Honus
Wagner.
Then he put
the box on a dresser and went back to digging through the attic.
It wasn’t
until two weeks later that he learned that his family had come across
what
experts say is one of the biggest, most exciting finds in the history
of sports
card collecting, a discovery worth perhaps millions.
The cards
are from an extremely rare series issued around 1910. Up to now, the
few known
to exist were in so-so condition at best, with faded images and worn
edges. But
the ones from the attic in the town of Defiance are nearly pristine,
untouched
for more than a century. The colors are vibrant, the borders crisp and
white.
“It’s like
finding the Mona Lisa in the attic,” Kissner said.
Sports card
experts who authenticated the find say they may never again see
something this
impressive.
“Every
future find will ultimately be compared to this,” said Joe Orlando,
president
of Professional Sports Authenticator.
The best of
the bunch — 37 cards — are expected to bring a total of $500,000 when
they are
sold at auction in August during the National Sports Collectors
Convention in
Baltimore. There are about 700 cards in all that could be worth up to
$3
million, experts say. They include such legends as Christy Mathewson
and Connie
Mack.
Kissner and
his family say the cards belonged to their grandfather, Carl Hench, who
died in
the 1940s. Hench ran a meat market in Defiance, and the family suspects
he got
them as a promotional item from a candy company that distributed them
with
caramels. They think he gave some away and kept others.
“We guess
he stuck them in the attic and forgot about them,” Kissner said. “They
remained
there frozen in time.”
After Hench
and his wife died, two of his daughters lived in the house. Jean Hench
kept the
house until she died last October, leaving everything inside to her 20
nieces
and nephews. Kissner, 51, is the youngest and was put in charge of the
estate.
His aunt was a pack rat, and the house was filled with three
generations of
stuff.
They found
calendars from the meat market, turn-of-the-century dresses, a steamer
trunk
from Germany and a dresser with Grandma’s clothes neatly folded in the
drawers.
Months went
by before they even got to the attic. On Feb. 29, Kissner’s cousin
Karla Hench
pulled out the dirty green box with metal clips at the corners and
lifted the
lid.
Not knowing
whether the cards were valuable, the two cousins put the box aside. But
Kissner
decided to do a little research. The cards were at his office in the
restaurant
he owns when he realized they might have something. He immediately took
them
across the street and put them in a bank vault.
Still not knowing
whether the cards were real, they sent eight to expert Peter Calderon
at
Heritage Auctions in Dallas, which recently sold the baseball that
rolled
through the legs of Boston Red Sox first baseman Bill Buckner in the
1986 World
Series for $418,000.
Calderon
said his first words were “Oh, my God.”
“I was in
complete awe,” he said. “You just don’t see them this nice.”
The cards
are from what is known as the E98 series. It is not clear who
manufactured them
or how many were produced, but the series consists of 30 players, half
of them
Hall of Famers.
The experts
at Heritage Auctions checked out the family’s background, the age of
the home
and the history of the meat market. They looked at the cards and how
they were
printed.
“Everything
lines up,” said Chris Ivy, the company’s director of sports auctions.
They then
sent all the cards to Professional Sports Authenticator, which had
previously
authenticated fewer than 700 E98s. The Ohio cards were the finest
examples from
the E98 series the company had ever seen.
The company
grades cards on a 1-to-10 scale based of their condition. Up to now,
the
highest grade it had ever given a Ty Cobb card from the E98 series was
a 7.
Sixteen Cobbs found in the Ohio attic were graded a 9 — almost perfect.
A Honus
Wagner was judged a 10, a first for the series.
Retired
vintage sports card auctioneer Barry Sloate of New York City said:
“This is
probably the most interesting find I’ve heard of.”
In a
measure of what baseball cards can be worth, the owner of the Arizona
Diamondbacks paid a record $2.8 million for a rare 1909 Honus Wagner.
Another
version of the card brought $1.2 million in April.
Heritage
Auctions plans to sell most of the cards over the next two of three
years
through auctions and private sales so that it doesn’t flood the market.
In all,
they could bring $2 million or $3 million, Ivy said.
The Hench
family is evenly dividing the cards and the money among the 20 cousins
named in
their aunt’s will. All but a few have decided to sell their share.
“These
cards need to be with those people who appreciate and enjoy them,”
Kissner
said.
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