Outline · [ Standard ] · Linear+ Woman finds old baseball card, in a box of antiques

[kc_royals_fan_5]

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/blog/big_leagu...?urn=mlb,132871

[tj2373]

Here is the link to the story:


http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/blog/big_leagu...?urn=mlb,132871

[hhorton513]

Very, very cool story.

http://www.courant.com/features/hc-webbase...0,2557404.story

The card, a Peck & Synder featuring the Cincinnati Red Stockings, the first professional baseball team, is said to be the first baseball card ever produced.

If she would have used "Buy It Now" we would be reading about lawsuits, etc.

[kooljazz1966]

Kool Story!

[road_runner_1964]

You beat me to it...just read it myself...WOW!

[JDFoxTrot79]

dude wtf........

She lives like two blocks away from where I grew up..

I would go to Collectique all the time and buy cards form 50's-70's form her for just a few dollars.

Man, i wish this would have been one of those

[Ryangene]

Saw this story unreal...

[dielonthug]

the comments after the article are funny

[19th Century Indiana Jones]

Dang! I been looking for that card!!!

And the Sammy Sosa comment was funny.

[captkirk42]

Very cool story.

I've always dreamed of something like that, finding a gem in an old box of ancient stuff.

[racedraper]

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/blog/big_leagu...?urn=mlb,132871


Bernice Gallego sat down one day this summer, as she does pretty much every day, and began listing items on eBay.

She dug into a box and pulled out a baseball card. She stopped for a moment and admired the picture. "Red Stocking B.B. Club of Cincinnati," the card read, under a sepia tone photo of 10 men with their socks pulled up to their knees. The card itself was dirty and wrinkled in a few places.

It was definitely old, Gallego thought. As a collector and seller, it's her job to spot old items that might have value today, to find the gems among the junk.
Tiny treasure
CRAIG KOHLRUSS / THE FRESNO BEE

Bernice Gallego of Collectique holds a rare 1869 baseball card of the Cincinnati Red Stockings that turned up at her Tower District shop in Fresno.
Tiny treasure
CRAIG KOHLRUSS / THE FRESNO BEE

The front of the very first baseball card, an 1869 Peck & Snyder Cincinnati Red Stockings card, features a sepia-toned, gelatin-silver photographic print of the first professional baseball team.
Tiny treasure
CRAIG KOHLRUSS / THE FRESNO BEE

The reverse side of the 1869 Peck & Snyder Cincinnati Red Stockings baseball card features an ad from Peck & Snyder, a sports equipment manufacturer.
CLICK FOR MORE PHOTOS

* Tiny treasure
* Tiny treasure
* Tiny treasure

Quantcast

It's what Bernice, 72, and her husband, Al Gallego, 80, have been doing since 1974 at Collectique, their Tower District antique store full of old jukeboxes, slot machines and records.

This card, she figured, was worth selling on eBay.

She did what she does with most items: Took a picture, wrote a description and put it up for auction. She put a $10 price tag on it, deciding against $15 because it would have cost her an extra 20 cents.

Later that night she got a few odd inquiries -- someone wanting to know whether the card was authentic, someone wanting her to end the auction and sell him the card immediately.

Hmm, she thought, this could be something special. It could be worth $50, or even $100.

Or, as Bernice Gallego came to find out in the following weeks, it could be worth a lot more.

The card is actually 139 years old. It, and a handful of others like it, are considered the first baseball cards.

Sports card collectors call the find "extremely rare" and estimate the card could fetch five, or perhaps, six figures at auction.

And Bernice was worried about 20 cents.

Instead, just like that, she is the least likely protagonist ever for a rare-baseball card story.

"I didn't even know baseball existed that far back," Gallego says, between puffs on her cigarette. "I don't think that I've ever been to a baseball game."

Spooked with all the questions she was getting on eBay, she picked up the phone at 9:30 that night and called her good friend George Huddleston and asked his opinion.

"I never make phone calls after 8 o'clock at night," Gallego says. "My mother taught me never to do things like that."

Huddleston's answer was simple: End the auction now. Figure out what you have and what it's worth before selling it. Her husband, Al, agreed: "Get this thing off the Internet."

So the next morning -- with no bids yet on the card -- she canceled the auction. She wanted to find out more about the card.

Huddleston directed Gallego to a friend who would know what to do: Rick Mirigian, a local concert promoter and card trader who sold a rare basketball card in 2004 for $62,100.

In the meantime, Gallego didn't want the card to get lost, so she put it in a sandwich bag and push-pinned it to her laundry room wall.

"If it fell off the wall, the cat would have ate it," Gallego says. "Well, or the dog."

When she met with Mirigian, she found out what the card was -- an 1869 advertisement with a picture of the first professional baseball team, the Cincinnati Red Stockings.

"When I came to meet her and she took it out of a sandwich Baggie and she was smoking a cigarette, I almost fainted," Mirigian says.

"They've uncovered a piece of history that few people will ever be able to imagine or comprehend. And it comes out of Fresno," he says. "That card is history. It's like unearthing a Mona Lisa or a Picasso."

The adventure begins

Mirigian's first question to Bernice was what you might expect: Where did you get this?

[kooljazz1966]

Racedraper...you got beat to the punch on this thread I fear.

[pokerstar6]

I saw this story earlier today. I love reading about "surprise" finds. There are still some treasures to be found out there I'm sure

[2000 rushing yards]

I read this article too. That's great, good thing she took it off of ebay. I think it could go for around 500K IMO

[bob_TCC]

Multiple topics related to this story have been merged.

-Bob

[ffman]

It should have said "Miguel Tejada".

Dang! I been looking for that card!!!

And the Sammy Sosa comment was funny. 

[houkk]

Wow! I was wondering if anyone was going to unearth that rare Jamie Moyer rookie card!

[jaderock]

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/blog/big_league_stew/post/Woman-finds-139-year-old-baseball-card-in-box-of?urn=mlb,132871

Woman finds 139-year-old baseball card in box of antiques
By 'Duk

The strange story goes like this: Last summer, Bernice Gallego pulled an old baseball card from a box of antiques. She figured it might be worth something to someone, so she listed it on eBay.

The starting bid was $10.

But after getting a flurry of inquiries about whether the card was authentic or not, Gallego started to suspect she was holding something a little more valuable and immediately ended the auction.

Turns out her hunch was correct. She did have something more valuable. The card she found was made in 1869 and featured the "Red Stocking B.B. Club of Cincinnati," the sport's first professional team. It's considered one of the first baseball cards ever produced and its actual value could be worth more than $100,000 when she puts it back on eBay (with a higher starting price, of course).

Of course, the news that she had found a rare piece of early baseball history came as a shock to the 72-year-old Fresno, Calif., resident who said she's never been to a baseball game. Her tale, from unwitting discovery to learning about the card's history, is wonderfully captured by our old pal Mike Osegueda of the Fresno Bee.

Gallego said she doesn't know exactly where the box of antiques came from since she and her husband are collectors and frequently buy lots from different estates around California. She does have a history of being lucky, though, having once won $250,000 on a slot machine.

(And with that, I'm off to see what I can find in my basement.)

From the Fresno Bee:
By Mike Osegueda / The Fresno Bee
Bernice Gallego sat down one day this summer, as she does pretty much every day, and began listing items on eBay.

She dug into a box and pulled out a baseball card. She stopped for a moment and admired the picture. "Red Stocking B.B. Club of Cincinnati," the card read, under a sepia tone photo of 10 men with their socks pulled up to their knees. The card itself was dirty and wrinkled in a few places.

It was definitely old, Gallego thought. As a collector and seller, it's her job to spot old items that might have value today, to find the gems among the junk.

It's what Bernice, 72, and her husband, Al Gallego, 80, have been doing since 1974 at Collectique, their Tower District antique store full of old jukeboxes, slot machines and records.

This card, she figured, was worth selling on eBay.

She did what she does with most items: Took a picture, wrote a description and put it up for auction. She put a $10 price tag on it, deciding against $15 because it would have cost her an extra 20 cents.

Later that night she got a few odd inquiries -- someone wanting to know whether the card was authentic, someone wanting her to end the auction and sell him the card immediately.

Hmm, she thought, this could be something special. It could be worth $50, or even $100.

Or, as Bernice Gallego came to find out in the following weeks, it could be worth a lot more.

The card is actually 139 years old. It, and a handful of others like it, are considered the first baseball cards.

Sports card collectors call the find "extremely rare" and estimate the card could fetch five, or perhaps, six figures at auction.

And Bernice was worried about 20 cents.

Instead, just like that, she is the least likely protagonist ever for a rare-baseball card story.

"I didn't even know baseball existed that far back," Gallego says, between puffs on her cigarette. "I don't think that I've ever been to a baseball game."

Spooked with all the questions she was getting on eBay, she picked up the phone at 9:30 that night and called her good friend George Huddleston and asked his opinion.

"I never make phone calls after 8 o'clock at night," Gallego says. "My mother taught me never to do things like that."

Huddleston's answer was simple: End the auction now. Figure out what you have and what it's worth before selling it. Her husband, Al, agreed: "Get this thing off the Internet."

So the next morning -- with no bids yet on the card -- she canceled the auction. She wanted to find out more about the card.

Huddleston directed Gallego to a friend who would know what to do: Rick Mirigian, a local concert promoter and card trader who sold a rare basketball card in 2004 for $62,100.

In the meantime, Gallego didn't want the card to get lost, so she put it in a sandwich bag and push-pinned it to her laundry room wall.

"If it fell off the wall, the cat would have ate it," Gallego says. "Well, or the dog."

When she met with Mirigian, she found out what the card was -- an 1869 advertisement with a picture of the first professional baseball team, the Cincinnati Red Stockings.

"When I came to meet her and she took it out of a sandwich Baggie and she was smoking a cigarette, I almost fainted," Mirigian says.

"They've uncovered a piece of history that few people will ever be able to imagine or comprehend. And it comes out of Fresno," he says. "That card is history. It's like unearthing a Mona Lisa or a Picasso."

The adventure begins

Mirigian's first question to Bernice was what you might expect: Where did you get this?

---

What a great find!

[bob_TCC]

Another topic about the same story has been merged into this one.

-Bob

[captkirk42]

Another topic about the same story has been merged into this one. 

-Bob

Do people not do a quick scan of recent topics to see if what they want to post has already been discussed? I guess not.

Bob thanks for monitoring the ol' boards and putting things right
[Hmm I think Bob is really Dr. Sam Beckett doing some Quantum Leaping ]