How many collections lay dormant?

[rhettyeakley]

There are quite a few more than I think any of us realize still laying around out there. Every major show has several that come in and ebay has new "collections" that come to light on a very regular basis.

A few months back I was contacted by a nice guy that had just "found" his great uncle's old baseball card collection and was able to purchase ~500 Zeenuts from 1921-28 and that was just part of the collection. There are still tons of new finds to be made out there.

[bbcard1]

The biggest problem are the undiscovered hordes of 1988 Donruss collections that have been dormant for lo these two decades. You have to find a lot of collections to find a collection.

[ChiefBenderForever]

Yes a lot of super collections out there and probably a couple T206 complete sets with the big ones as well nobody knows about. I know of one virgin collection put together through the 1960s-early 90s with all the prewar and 19th century bought in the 1970s and early 80s. He was a sort of type collector so had everything you could think of. He has atleast 30 old judge cabinets maybe more, I thought the cabinets were regular old judge until I first saw the small ones, he also found a booklet with the cabinets glued inside at a garage sale in the 1970s that has who knows who in it. I tried to go look at the collection in hopes of buying it a year ago and my old friend didn't even know where they are boxed up as he quit collecting years ago since it got to expensive and then I moved to CT. My dad went to see him last fall to see if he wanted any help in trying to find the old stuff but he said he has no interest in them or money for them so pretty much giving up. This collection could end up being tossed out depending on who does what when the collector who is ill passes away, I sure wanted to see what he had but it wasn't meant to be..........

[ctownboy]

I, too, think there are more "finds" out there than people realize. However, I see a couple of problems.

1) Unless the collection has a Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb or other well known player, a LOT of people wont realize the value of the cards and will throw them away. Or, they will just keep the well known players and ditch the rest.

I say this because I sometimes watch shows like Hoarders or Clean House and am amazed at how often the solutions to the problem is to either throw everything away, have a yard sale or donate items to a thrift or charity store.

One find that I had, 20 years ago, was of a person whose Grand Mother died and who kept everything she owned. When she died she was about 100 years old. Her first Husband was older than her and he was also a "collector".

When the Grand Children were cleaning up her place (which they said had a LOT of OLD stuff) there was an out building with a roof that had collapsed. In that building was a pile of paper items three feet high that had gotten wet and was destroyed. The Grand Son I spoke with said they had to remove the pile with shovels and nothing could be saved.

The good part, however, is that on a shelf, in a wooden box, were 1100 tobacco cards from the 1880s. I didn't have the money to buy the cards (they sold for $3,500 dollars) but I let a dealer know about them and the cards were saved. In the collection were about 100 Native American cards. There were also complete and partial sets of birds, fish, Parasol Drill, World's Smokers, World's Dudes, actresses, hold to light cards and N28's (plus some types I have probably forgotten).

The N28's only had Clarkson, Keefe and Caruthers in baseball but they had a number of boxers, wrestlers and other sports plus Wild Bill Hickok and Annie Oakley. Some of these other cards had doubles.

Other things these people found were old books, guns and tin types, one of which was of General Custer.

The point I am trying to make with this LONG story is that, luckily, the relatives of this woman had a clue about old things and saved as much of her stuff as possible. If they didn't have a clue or if a "hoarder" intervention person had showed up, I am afraid much of this stuff would have just been considered trash and thrown away.

I am sure if I didn't tell my Nephew about my cards and how much some of them were worth, he wouldn't have a clue and wouldn't know who most of the players were and what to do with them if something happens to me.

I bet there are a LOT of young people today who have no clue about antiques and when faced with teh task of cleaning out a deceased relatives house, just want to pitch stuff and be finished as quickly as possible.

2) The second problem I see is fire and disasters. I am sure there are collections truly hidden away in attics or basements but are destroyed by fire or natural disasters. With things like Hurricane Katrina, I watch television and see the destruction and wonder what was lost that nobody will ever know about.......

David

[ctownboy]

Johnny,

I would make it a point to stay in contact with that person. You never know what might happen.

It is possible they might one day decide it is time to sell and call you. Or, they might make a note or tell a a relative that if something happens to them that they have a valuable baseball collection and that you are the person to call about it.

David

[egbeachley]

Johnny, I second what David said. Heck, just offer $1,000 sight unseen and see if that lights a fire. If that sounds too risky I'll put up the cash and we can split the collection 50/50

As far as the original topic, I would agree that there are many unknown collections. For my specialty, 19th century non-sports, the guides often mention cards that exist but none have been sold in the last dozen years or so. One example is the N9 Allen & Ginter Flags of Nations card of Roumania. The book American Tobacco Cards mentions 6 known but the only public example is the one I have that's not one of the 6. I just think they'll eventually end up getting sold when the collector passes on.

[steve B]

Yes, lots of stuff out there that's in unknown collections.

A bit over a year ago I picked up a few cards from a collection. The main part of the collection was modern, but with a bunch of nice stuff. Too much for me to buy, but I got a few things for helping sort the stuff and setting the owner up with an appropiate local auction.

One of the things was a tiny collection that had apparently been bought and never sorted or checked. A few E94s a few T206s mixed up in a small paper bag with a bunch of nonsports cards of varying condition. One of those was an unlisted T49.

There's lots of stuff out there, even hidden in fairly active collections.

Steve B

[deadballera]

"unknown" might be a challenging



there are collectors that choose to collect only raw material

there are owners that do not know what they have sitting in the "attic"

Myself....I have a hundreds of "RAW" cards before WWII. Tobacco's, Goudey's, Caramels, etc. I have only sent in one card to be graded that I later consigned to an auction house.

I do not get them graded because of the cost. At some point, I would love to them graded. But for now...I can feel and smell the goodness of our hobby

[photo111]

I would hope that there are people who collect that do not care about grade, "low pop" or value. They collect because they enjoy it. A part of me hopes that these collections stay hidden, in the family, as part of the family. I don't know, maybe I just wish for a time that maybe didn't exist.

M. penz

[bh3443]

Yes, many collections I was responsible in helping build lay dormant for a decade or more just in my area.
When I opened my first store in 1981 I sold thousands of the new BB sets. Typically, the collector would then buy 1980 and descend towards completing a run of Topps sets. There are at least 2 or 3 dozen full runs of Topps and Bowman sets I was involved in making for these clients that are dormant.
The collectors with "deeper pockets" or "a more than passing interest in cards' ventured into making the Play ball, Goudey and T series would surprise you. More than 5 collectors bought Goudey runs (other sets like Diamond Stars, DeLongs we're sold, too) from me in one shot.
I still see collectors from the "old days', and many assure me they still have their cards and some have stayed with the hobby by purchasing the new sets each season.
Here in the suburbs of Boston we had so many wonderful cards produced and an abundant supply of Goudeys (even DeLongs) always existed. Not to mention, the greatest 1952 Topps Hi # find to ever surface came from this area. The only Current All-Stars I've ever seen of konstanty, Roberts & Stanky also came from this area early in the 1980's.
Since the early days of cards Boston has had some fantastic collections as well as some of the greatest cards ever made. These vintage collections may lay dormant, but believe me, they are everywhere.
Thanks to all my friends on Net 54 for keeping our hobby in such good hands.
God Bless,
Bill Hedin

[tedzan]

GOD Bless you Bill Hedin.


OK..I think the term "dormant" might not apply in this hobby's bigger picture. For, I can account, just in my small collecting sphere, that
there are approx. 50 vintage collections out there whose owners cannot tell you the difference between a "pop report" and a "pop tart".
Furthermore, they don't care, as they enjoy their cardboard "goodies" as much....if not more....than the new generation of Graded card
collectors.

I, for one, am part of this crowd. And, most of us are very active in the hobby....so, I don't think "dormant" is the right choice of words
to describe these collections.

Now, if I can account for 50 such collections, I would extrapolate that number into many 100's of such collections. And, I can tell you
that some of these collections of E-cards, T-cards, Goudey's, Play Ball's, etc. are in amazing condition (well kept in high quality mylar
sheets).

If some of these cards were to get into circulation, they would cause chaos in the "pop reports".


TED Z

[barrysloate]

They can not tell you the difference between a pop report and a pop tart.

Now that's good!