I had a lot of fun with this one:
A few years ago, I went to a vintage paper fair. A seller had a case of miscellaneous sports cards from the 1930s to the 1990s. Mostly offbeat stuff like match covers and 'humorous' sets, but there was a lot of it. One card caught my eye in there, a 1958 Topps Jim Brown RC. It was in an old-school snap-tite holder (these were a thing around 1990) and looked completely roached. I couldn't even open the holder. I asked how much. The dealer barked at me (way too angry for 10:00 a.m., IMO) that it was $450 for the whole case, no cherry picking. Well, I could see enough value there that I was gonna make the deal anyway but I had to ask if he'd take less. Apparently, not a good question...someone needed a Starbucks I guess. Anyhow, I paid for the collection and he gave me a box to haul it all. The box had all sorts of packing detritus at the bottom, mostly moldy newspapers, which I left in there. I took the box to my car and went back to the show for a while. I then went to my office to look over the collection I'd bought.
One thing I've learned is never, ever throw out anything without checking it thoroughly first. I went through the newspapers carefully and this snapshot tumbled out:
Satchel Paige in 1949, shot by the team photographer, in the same sequence as the photo that became the TI that year in the picture pack. Needless to say, I was thrilled since I had no idea it was in there.
Oh, and the Jim Brown RC? Well, the holder was so old and brittle that when I tried to separate the halves it basically exploded. Shards of plastic everywhere; one even hit my glasses. The card itself:
That was a
good day!