Posted By:
barrysloateI 've had dozens of great finds over the years, and wouldn't know where to begin. Most of the biggest ones were in the 1980's and 90's, mostly involving original groups of T205 and T206. And since it is always someone else's family's collection and they have called me, it's unclear exactly how much finding I have actually done. Nevertheless, here is a bunch of them:
* In 1998, I found the only uncancelled 1932 U.S. Caramel Lindy Lindstrom and brought it into the hobby.
* I have a neighbor who lives a few doors away who said he had his father's childhood collection of cigarette cards and that he would one day let me sell them. In this modest group was a very clean Hoblitzell No Stats. Now, while there are rarer cards, what is the chance of finding one a half a block from your front door.
*Three years ago a woman from Pennsylvania called who had an Allen & Ginter N28 Baseball poster, and thought it had little to no value. I was lucky to auction off for her.
*Although not a baseball card, there is a baseball book called Sphere & Ash that was unknown in private hands until the late 1990's. The only known copy was in the Hall of fame and was used to make the Camden reprint. I brought the only other known copy into the hobby in 1999.
* I once auctioned off six Just So's but they were purchased from a family by a fellow board member, so while loosely a find I must give him the credit
*Last year I auctioned an original family T206 collection that included an Eddie Plank and more than 300 Sovereign backs.
Again, the term "find" is used loosely because I didn't actually find these things scouring somebody's attic, but I guess they still qualify.
There are so many others, like the family collection that had dozens of E92 Dockmans in pristine condition (6's and 7's by today's standards) but I think these are enough for now.