Sometimes the details differ, but the stereotypical baseball card horror story usually goes something like this:

In about 1967, somebody's mother got tired of the mess, and started to clean out her kid's closet, or the family basement, or the attic. And along the way she threw out three or four precious Mickey Mantle rookie cards that, if sold, could have kept Greece solvent for years.

It's a good thing for the descendents of Defiance, Ohio's Carl Hench that no mothers in the family tree ever acted on what could have been such a destructive impulse. Because now, after decades in the attic, a treasure trove of rare baseball cards featuring vanguard Hall of Famers can come out and play.

Described in an Associated Press story as "one of the biggest, most exciting finds in the history of sports card collecting," about 700 cards from a series made around 1910 were found. Names such as Honus Wagner, Ty Cobb, Cy Young and Christy Mathewson. And the most remarkable thing about the cards: Their great condition. In total, the find could be worth $3 million. And that could be conservative.

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