Boom! I had to share this one!
 

Honestly, I am a good collector but not an overly lucky one. I am sort of a grinder. I pay fair prices and while I do ok and enjoy the process a lot, I hardly ever really just plain get lucky.

A couple of days ago a church friend brought me two decent size boxes of ball cards he had taken from his neighbor's trash pile. He and I have been fellow collectors for a while, but he is going through a profound downsize and decided to pass the "treasures" on to me. Turns out his neighbors were an older couple and they were moving and their son said he didn't want his cards.

I went through the first box and it was stuffed full of 1987-1990 Topps, Donruss, etc. To make matters worse, they had obviously been picked. Probably an Ozzie Smith and a Rollie Fingers were the best cards I found. Make no mistake, it was fun remembering Steve Balboni and Dan Pleasac...I myself had opened a lot of cards in those years.

Second box was a two level job. Top level was more of the same and I decided to lay it aside. I laughed and sent a text to my buddy that he had missed the boat because I had found a rubber banded stack of ET cards.

Tonight, I was avoiding work (turns out I still am) and decided to dig into the second level. More Kal Daniels and Bip Roberts...then I hit a run where the sides looked different. Although I am not a football or non-sport guy, this is what I found...a 1958 Topps football set less three cards but including a nice Brown rookie...A full set of original Elvis cards...A Topps TV Western set minus six and a few space cards along with a large stack (about 100) of 1955 Bowman football cards. Probably the best out-of-left-field find I have had in 40+ years of collecting. I'll probably finish the sets and just enjoy them.

That's sweet...they look really nice...and were not picked! congrats!

That Jim Brown alone was worth digging through boxes. Very nice.

Nice!

Great score!!! I'm really starting to dig the look of those '50s Football cards.

Looks like some potentially gradeable cards there, especially the '57s from what I can see.

Those are some beautiful cards Todd. Congrats!!

Congratulations! It always pays to go through that stuff thoroughly. I got a boxed lot of some mostly mundane cards (for a dirt cheap price) that ended up containing two Jim Bunning perfect game ticket stubs, among other decent oddball stuff.

Sweet pickup.

That is awesome!! I'm sure your heart skipped a beat when you saw that familiar Jimmy Brown card with the brown background!

Absolutely! I have always thought Brown was one of the truly great American athletes. Even thought about buying the card. The guy had pulled Starr, Unitas and Jurgenson…but missed the Brown. Everything else in the set is there. Crazy.

todd
 

great story and congrats on the find!
all the best,
barry

I got a box of cards from the local auction house, I saw an uncut panel on the top and was too lazy to dig around. I got it for a whole shiny dollar. When I got it home there was 2 limited edition gretzky prints in there 199/500 and 301/500.

Wow that's some nice cards in the group! Congrats!

Ricky Y

Great find. Contrary to everyone else, I think the Balboni was the best find. Definitely should send it off to get graded. Then hold on to it for another 40-50 years and who knows...

Nice! That's fantastic!

Once in a while we can chalk one up for the good guys.

-Al

Boom! I had to share this one!
 

Always good to have some luck - have had some recent luck myself

Happy collecting!

Jimmy

Even that Elvis set is a nice score because you had to build it through buying the packs. Congrats.

Turned out the Western set was complete, too. I didn't imagine there would be a 71 card set.