Wonderful find Mark, and great job helping out the shop owner. Very cool seeing all those raw cards spread out on the table. It would be interesting to learn more about where these came from. Did the coin shop owner know any more of the back story on these? Were they found in grandpa's attic? Were the sellers young or old?
It's not surprising that scores of people out there would not have the awareness or means to do some basic Internet research to get a basic idea of what hey had. I know, for example, my 86 year old mother wouldn't have a clue or know where to begin if she found a shoebox full of cards and would dump them at a local coin/gold shop (well, she would call me first, but you get the point). A bit more surprised that the coin shop owner had no clue.
Seeing the overall condition, and that it appears some were in an album, leads one to think someone at some point cared for them. A bit sad if someone who could have used the money may have left thousands on the table, or maybe the story is more seedy and they were stolen from grandma and dumped for a quick meth hit
.....who knows, it would be fascinating to learn more.