Woman finds 139-year-old baseball card in box of antiques...

[posty 2,844]

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/blog/big_leagu...?urn=mlb,132871

 

The strange story goes like this: Last summer, Bernice Gallego pulled an old baseball card from a box of antiques. She figured it might be worth something to someone, so she listed it on eBay.

 

The starting bid was $10.

 

But after getting a flurry of inquiries about whether the card was authentic or not, Gallego started to suspect she was holding something a little more valuable and immediately ended the auction.

 

Turns out her hunch was correct. She did have something more valuable. The card she found was made in 1869 and featured the "Red Stocking B.B. Club of Cincinnati," the sport's first professional team. It's considered one of the first baseball cards ever produced and its actual value could be worth more than $100,000 when she puts it back on eBay (with a higher starting price, of course).

 

Of course, the news that she had found a rare piece of early baseball history came as a shock to the 72-year-old Fresno, Calif., resident who said she's never been to a baseball game. Her tale, from unwitting discovery to learning about the card's history, is wonderfully captured by our old pal Mike Osegueda of the Fresno Bee. Click here to read it.

 

From the Fresno Bee:

 

"When I came to meet her and she took it out of a sandwich Baggie and she was smoking a cigarette, I almost fainted," (collector Rick) Mirigian says.

 

"They've uncovered a piece of history that few people will ever be able to imagine or comprehend. And it comes out of Fresno," he says. "That card is history. It's like unearthing a Mona Lisa or a Picasso."

 

Gallego said she doesn't know exactly where the box of antiques came from since she and her husband are collectors and frequently buy lots from different estates around California. She does have a history of being lucky, though, having once won $250,000 on a slot machine.

 

(And with that, I'm off to see what I can find in my basement.)

[He Like Me 0]

I think they got it wrong. By the looks of the pic, I think she's 139 and the card is 72 years old.

[posty 2,844]

Got $64,073 for it...

 

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/blog/big_leagu...?urn=mlb,140821

 

Remember Bernice Gallego? The lady who found an 1869 Cincinnati Red Stockings card in her attic, put it up for sale on eBay with a starting price of $10 and then pulled it down after realizing it might be worth much more?

 

Turns out Gallego's hunch was right. After a three-week online auction, the Fresno resident sold what is believed to be one of history's first baseball cards for $64,073.

 

Not a bad paycheck for some spring cleaning.

 

The sale ended a whirlwind month for Gallego, who attracted an avalanche of attention on the front page of Yahoo!, the New York Times and other outlets across the country. Her popularity soared even further in late January, when she appeared on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and revealed that this wasn't her first instance of blind luck. She once won $250,000 from a slot machine in Nevada.

 

Gallego embraced all the attention and kept a wicked sense of humor throughout the process, as evidenced by her first public remarks after the auction ended on Tuesday.

 

From the Fresno Bee:

 

"I'm so happy for the card. Oh and for me too, of course," said Gallego on Tuesday night. "I had hoped to bail out California from this financial emergency, but it didn't quite get that far. But maybe it'll bail out my credit cards."

 

Jeffrey Rosenberg of Tristar Productions was the winner of the auction. He runs an autograph show business and plans to display the card at shows around the country.

 

The actual final price of the card was $75,285.78, but that amount included a 17.5 percent buyer's premium for the auction house. Memory Lane Auctions says the price is a record for its house and that the last 1869 Red Stockings card sold for around $30,000.

[tikigods 77]

I posted this a month ago. Please try and keep up.

[posty 2,844]

I posted this a month ago. Please try and keep up.

 

You posted yours on Jan 25th... http://www.fftodayforums.com/forum/index.p...t&p=3872820

 

My first post dealing with the finding of the card, was posted on Jan 8th...

 

Thanks for playing...

[GettnHuge 2]

shocking! a 72yr old online?!

[tikigods 77]

You posted yours on Jan 25th... http://www.fftodayforums.com/forum/index.p...t&p=3872820

 

My first post dealing with the finding of the card, was posted on Jan 8th...

 

Thanks for playing...

 

Nice try.

[posty 2,844]

Nice try.

 

Link then?

[Giants Fan 85]

That's nothing!

 

I made a drawing of a orange today. It's REALLY round, and I looked at the orange as I drew it in #2 pencil .... and I wished .... my pencil exposed a more accurate color. Because the yellow really threw me off.

 

It's gonna be worth millions some day. Even though it's just a drawing of a circle.

[zmanzzzz 1]

i posted this last year.

[spottedowl 1]

I read this post today.

[BMoney 0]

i figured triStar would win this...free advertising for them...

 

they now sell junk card boxes at walmarts with a chance to win a legit old card like babe ruth etc..so im sure this card is next....

 

she shouldve got the card graded...