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ScottI received some cards in the late 80s from an 80 year old man. He gave them to me in a envelope and told me he remembered them coming from either candy or bread.Inside were about 30 or so cards and they all were NY Americans and NY Nationals.
In the group were about 6 Ruths,4 Huggins,3 or 4 McGraws, and a couple of the following players: Stock,Shea and Sallee.He told me if I sold them for him he would allow me to keep one of every player represented.
Now keep this in mind-I was about 22 years old and knew nothing about vintage cards-I knew about 50, 60 and 70 topps.I collected and read the Beckett magazine.I took the cards to a couple local card shops in the Baltimore area and was offered 400 to 800 dollars for the group of cards. I had already pulled the best quality player for my own collection.I decided to wait a month or so because a show was coming to Columbia Md and a guy name "Mr.Mint" was going to be there.At the show he was very skeptical of the cards because they were in such nice condition-he took the cards and showed a couple other dealers and when he came back to the c table and started throwing down 100 dollar bills -100,200,300,400 and so on-he was loud and a crowd grew around-he slapped down 2000 dollars-I said we have not agreed upon a price-he slapped down 4 more hundred dollar bills-I picked up the stack and said Thanks and walked away.
I was so young and nervous-my hands where sweating-i had never seen money like that before-I was working driving a truck and finishing my senior year in college.
The old man was very happy with the money and I was happy to add these 6 cards to my collection.Today he/I probably could have gotten ten times that amount!
For what it is worth I believe all the cards I owned and sold were Koester Bread cards-Koester had a bread plant (bakery) in Baltimore,the old man said he got them from bread or candy,and the group and had NYnationals and Americans-Also the Ruth was "George" not "Babe".
I recently bought a card at a show of a blank back NY National player and the card stock was so much thinner than the ones I own-this must be a W-575.