"brush with greatness"

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Posted By: barrysloate

I guess the greatest find I had a chance to be a part of occurred in 1998 when I got a call from a man in New Mexico who was cleaning out his garage and found his childhood baseball card collection. He had a batch of 1933 Goudeys, all with the ads cut off, and two U.S. Caramels. One was Lou Gehrig, his favorite player, and the second one he had no idea why he saved it- Lindy Lindstrom. At the time, only a single copy of that card was known, and it was cancelled. He had just uncovered the only clean example in existence. Fortunately we hit it off well and he allowed me to auction it for him. I always felt that he probably saved it because he was the only one on his block who had one, since it was originally severely short-printed so kids could never finish the set. I've handled many great pieces over the years, but that one is right up there with my favorites.