Sports collectible finds in strangest places. Lets hear yours

[Exhibitman]

I went to one this year and one of the guests had been told I was a card collector so he brought a shoebox of cards from his childhood that he wanted to get rid of. Nothing like matzoh ball soup and classic Topps cards!

[GrayGhost]

AWESOME. What helps w mine too is he is a Yankees fan. I LOVE these kinda stories. the Passover one is just what Im talking about.

[Runscott]

I've had some great finds, but the most unexpected was when I was visiting an older woman and she gave me a pile of 1950's baseball cards, including two Mantles. She was a teacher and had been helping other teachers clean out lockers during summer break. She brought them home to give to her son - he didn't want them, so she gave them to me. I never say 'no' to free Mantles.

[Writehooks]

I lived and worked in Beijing, China, for 14 months in 2004-05. As a lifelong boxing collector, you can imagine my shock and awe one winter afternoon when I wandered into one of the ubiquitous smoke shops that dot the capital and saw that every inch of the back wall — an area of about 8 feet high by 20 feet long — was adorned with photographs, posters and clippings of Muhammad Ali. About half the stash was printed in Chinese; the rest was English, Japanese, Korean, etc. The young lady who served as my interpreter explained to the shop owner that I was a huge Ali fan, and, through her, we had a terrific hour-long chat about 'The Greatest.' When it was time to say goodbye, the gentleman presented me with two pinbacks commemorating Ali's visit to Macau in the mid-90s.

[FourStrikes]

TRUE STORY

in the early 1980's, went to a day game at Dodger Stadium with my Dad...sitting next to us was a couple from Canada and they asked me about my interest in baseball...mentioned that I was a baseball fan and collected baseball cards, and as the conversation continued the couple told me they had some early baseball cards at home, and if I wanted them they'd "send them to me" if I gave them an address.

amazingly, a few weeks later, a box from Canada arrived at the door, and when I opened it, inside was a partial set - a complete run of #'s 1-224 filed numerically - of 1955 Bowman baseball cards in great condition...

we were beyond shocked, and I immediately sent them a thank you letter, but never heard back from the couple again.

in hindsight, I wish I would have kept it, but since I already had a complete 1955 Bowman set, a few years later I wound up selling the partial set.

[steve B]

I've had a few small finds in sort of odd places, and a couple really odd ones.

Coin show 1980 or so, before many coin dealers cared about cards. Found a silk of Baker.

Bottle show 1990's- Found a cubs coffee cup that's restauraunt ware. Maybe from the team or something?

Same show the next year - an oddball advertising set complete with the envelope and ads.

And the oddest ones---
Again probably around 1980. Walking home from the baseball card shop, I found a plastic page of 1948 Bowman football cards on the top in a trash can. P-G, but a waterfield rookie.

My brother came back from camp one time and said I should call a friend of his. They'd been playing softball and one of the bats had cracked But he said it looked pretty old. Yep, old. Bon-Topper bat company from Hartford, with a Fred Parent signature burned into the barrel. Probably a game bat. I traded a Hank Aaron store bat they could use for that bat ,an old D+M bat and one or two other fairly rough condition bats that he figured were too old to use anymore.

Steve B

[brob28]

When I was about 12, around 1980. There was an abandonded burned out house about 20 minutes (by bike) from my house. One day I got the guts to explore the garage & found a shoebox full of 1970 through 1972 Topps baseball cards. If a 12 year old was going to have a heart attack, that would have been my moment! My wife doesnt know the story, but always makes fun of me as I can't take my eyes off abandonded homes when we're out and about!