Mr. Mint was with a dealer friend of mine "Uncle" Dick Decourcey. They found a delivery truck abandoned in a TN warehouse that contained cases of 53-55 bowmans. Most of the cards were perfect but some boxes had been invaded by silverfish. Dick told me they had to stop and wash their hands constantly.
Interesting stuff.
Almost all of this stuff is word of mouth. I cant even find much on the 51 topps find on the net. I have a couple other stories as well that I am including in my book.
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Originally Posted by aelefson
Warehouse finds can be a bit misleading, as very rarely have huge stocks of older items found, but often a few thousand packs can make a big difference in future availability (I forget the details of the 51 red backs but I think it was 2-300 boxes at a minimum).
The 1964 Topps Giant cards also benefited from a similar find in the 1980s (I bought 300 of these just last year for about 40.00 at Brimfield although they were mostly commons. That is probably atypical, but they are still very cheap for the era and quality). I do not know the exact details of the find, but given the quantities of these cards in really nice condition I think it was in the tens of thousands.
Alan Rosen, aka Mr. Mint, publicized his finds in the 1980s including the famous 52 Topps find, but also finds of mid 1950s Topps and Bowman unopened boxes. I think the second find was a couple hundred boxes with some bug damage (if I recall correctly).
REA auctioned a really cool wharehouse find of early 1930s unopened baseball and non sports cards a few years ago. I think it was only one box of each product.
Alan
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