550 pounds of are cards, a check for $77,000, and a close call with airport security! Just Collect has proudly discovered and purchased The Nebraska Collection which includes sports cards, memorabilia, premiums, food-issued cards, and more than we could dream of. This collection hasn't seen the light of day in 50 years! Check out the likes of Babe Ruth and Mickey Mantle, as well as what exactly happened at the airport.
My first-ever trip to Nebraska was one to remember. Jeff and his Uncle Curtis owned thousands of vintage sports cards, premiums, memorabilia including collectibles of Babe Ruth and Mickey Mantle. The collection hasn't been made public before, sitting in the family's possession for over five decades. When Uncle Curtis decided it was time to sell his treasure, he knew that Just Collect was the company for the job. Your local card shop is generally not well equipped to appraise or purchase vintage collections like this. The retail stores are focused on selling modern products and simply don't have the time or the knowledge to carefully evaluate vintage collections. This is where I'm happy to help you! As a baseball card treasure hunter, I have purchased over 50 million dollars in collections including the recent, historic HINDU COLLECTION of rare 1909-11 T206 cards.
Uncle Curtis not only had vintage baseball cards, he was ahead of his time with collection premiums. By premiums, think back to when you would cut out cereal box tops or the UPC code on the back of your action figures and mailed each away to earn a prize. This collection has it all!
In our slide show below, the first image you see is of 1909-1911 T206 tobacco cards. Well before you were opening baseball cards from wax packs, tobacco companies would place a baseball card inside of their products! On the back of each card is an advertisement for the brand of tobacco. In total, 16 different tobacco companies included a baseball card in their products. Some cards are more rare than others depending on the brand on the back. We previously mentioned our collection of Hindu back cards - roughly 1% of all surviving T206 cards have a Hindu back! A few of these cards have been graded including a John McGraw card, which received a grade of 4 by PSA. McGraw was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1937 after winning the World Series as a player and guiding his team to a pair of championships as a manager.
The second photo is of a 1947 Dupont Cavalcade of America 6"x9" premium of Babe Ruth! This Ruth premium was distributed by NBC Radio in connection with The Story of Babe Ruth. How rare is this piece? PSA has only graded 24 copies and just four have been graded higher than the one you're looking at! We told you Uncle Curtis had amazing premiums.
Babe Ruth is the star of the third photo below, too! More premiums, food-issues, and even Topps cards of The Great Bambino are here. In 1934, Quaker Oats offered a Babe Ruth Trivia game consisting of 34 cards that you could mail away for. Both cards in this collection are graded PSA 8! Card number B4 has just one card graded higher by PSA, and card number F5 has zero cards graded higher! This 1934 game card of Babe Ruth is the best-conditioned card known. As you know, condition is very important when determining the value of your cards. Using the scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being Gem Mint, perfect, even a change of just a singe grade could alter the value of your card by hundreds, if not thousands of dollars - this is why we tell you how to safely store your baseball cards. In 1934, Quaker Oats also offered pins to their baseball club members. You can see the Babe Ruth pin graded PSA 8 in the middle of photo three. PSA has graded 384 of these pins, and only TWO have been graded higher than a PSA 8. Other unique items in this photo include a 1954 Topps Scoop card and two 1967 Topps Who AM I cards of Ruth. 1956 Topps Hocus Focus cards and a 1913 National Game card of Hall of Famer Sam Crawford were in the collection. Recognize the name next to the Babe Ruth pin? Ty Cobb graces the front of a 1910-12 Sweet Caporal pin. Sweet Caporal is a tobacco brand that can be found on the 1909-11 T206 cards, and then they branched into pins. Just 185 of this Cobb pin version has been graded by PSA.
LEGENDS. As you slide to image four, you find 1948 Topps Magic Photo cards. Remember using a Polaroid camera? These cards were much like taking pictures back when you were a kid. Each card was blank, but when exposed to sunlight, the image would develop. You're pretty familiar with 1952 Topps baseball cards, but before Topps released that iconic set, they produced these Magic Photo cards. Take a look at the names on each card from The Nebraska Collection - oh. my. Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Ty Cobb, Cy Young - the list just goes on.
The unique cards continue on the fifth image. 1948 Swell Sports Thrills cards were made by the Philadelphia Gum Company. This 20-card set honors the most thrilling moments and has a story on the back of each card to detail the image on the front. Second row, second card in features Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig with Most Dramatic Home Run. This image is from the called shot Ruth made in the 1932 World Series.
Stacks of 1949 and 1950 Bowman baseball cards capture your eyes in the sixth image. Take a closer look and you'll find that these are no ordinary vintage baseball cards; these cards are in very high grade! Lou Boudreau carries a grade of PSA 8 in the center of the image. Boudreau is a Hall of Famer who won the MVP and led his team to a World Series victory the year before this card was produced. Only seven 1949 Bowman Boudreau cards have ever been graded higher. To the left is another Hall of Famer, Early Wynn. A nine-time All-Star and Cy Young award winner, Wynn is seen on this PSA 7 copy. The run of cards graded between PSA 6 and PSA 8 in this picture is nothing short of stunning. Cards were played with, traded, flipped, put in bike spokes, stacked and had rubber bands placed around each and thrown into shoe boxes. Not these cards - each card looks like it was opened fresh from a pack yesterday.
1951 Topps Red Back cards are next up! This 52-card set was created as a game. Each card has a value such as a ball, strike, out, home run, etc. Much like the 1949 and 1950 Bowman cards, what stands out on these Red Back cards are the high grades. The first card in the photo is graded PSA 9! There are zero PSA 10 copies that exist of that Gene Hermanksi card. We're just so impressed by the condition of each card Uncle Curtis collected in The Nebraska Collection.
Mickey Mantle rounds of off in the slide show. In 1964, if you sent in 20 Phillies Cigar bands along with $3.39, you would receive a baseball glove, a photo of Mantle, and a thank you letter with a facsimile signature.
These mail away premiums are just so card to come by. How many people took the time to collect wrappers or box tops, send them in the mail, and then hold onto the items for decades?! Uncle Curtis sure did. Here is the slide show for you to see some of the stellar Nebraska Collection:
Do you have any similar cards from this collection that you'd like to sell? We are buying! Click here for more info:
Curtis reached out on our website and used our
Just Collect resides in New Jersey. I agreed with Curtis to fly out to Nebraska and evaluate his collection in-person, much like I had with the Silver Cloud Collection purchased in Seattle, WA. Curtis, his nephew, Jeff, and the family welcomed me into their home and I went to work!
For three days, I reviewed, documented, and evaluated each card. After each day, I went over my research, the value of the collection, and the offer I would provide for the collection.
I made a fair offer to Curtis that he accepted, and then I paid him via not just one, but THREE company checks. We agreed on a price of $77,000, but Curtis wanted to split the amount with his two sisters. I loved to hear that! When you choose to sell your collection to Just Collect, we pay you how you want to be paid whether it is cash, company check, or wire transfer. We also have many ways to evaluate and purchase your collection other than making a road trip to your house - you can come to our store in New Jersey, meet at a card show or convention or we could work out shipping your collection with our two-day, fully-insured FedEx account.
Speaking of shipping... you're probably wondering how I took home 550 pounds of cards and memorabilia.
I packed up my carry-on luggage to the maximum amount of weight. I then paid Curtis and his family and provided him supplies to package up the rest of the collection to mail with our FedEx account. About 11 boxes and 500+ pounds of cards and memorabilia arrived safely here at Just Collect.
While at the airport, security asked me if I had any weapons. Of course not! My carry-on luggage was flagged by TSA, though. When asked again if I had any weapons, I couldn't figure out what was happening. As it turns out, one of the pieces of baseball memorabilia Uncle Curtis had was a Babe Ruth pocket knife, and there it was in my suitcase.
To see what happened with airport security and more about The Nebraska Collection, enjoy this video:
The Nebraska Collection is so massive, we can't even begin to show you the other incredible items in just this one blog. We'll be telling you more about this collection right here on the Just Collect blog including:
We can't wait to tell you about the rest of The Nebraska Collection!
Just Collect is always buying vintage sports and non-sports cards from 1879 to 1979 as well as select modern cards. If you have a collection that you are considering selling, contact us today to discuss or get our industry-leading purchase offer. If you have a collection that you want appraised, please contact us and we would be happy to discuss your collection and help you understand the real cash value of your collection in the current marketplace. Check out the Just Collect Buy List.
We always offer a FREE APPRAISAL for your collection here at the Just Collect site. Just click here:
We offer may ways to evaluate your cards other than or using our website, too.
If you can make the trip here like the son from my hometown did for this collection- we can make a deal at the office. We once met a father-son duo that drove eight hours from Virginia to meet us to sell a Michael Jordan rookie card stored in Tupperware since 1986 - great read here.
We keep a LIST of card shows we'll be attending. Come stop by the Just Collect table and chat.
If you have a valuable collection and want us to come to you, we'll hop on the next plane out.
If you're near New York City and would like to meet in a public place, our owner, Leighton, would be happy to meet you; read all the information here.
If you choose to mail your cards for an appraisal, we will evaluate your cards for FREE still. If you choose not to sell the cards, we'll ship them back shipping fees paid by us! We can offer our FedEx account with 2-day shipping, fully insured, all covered by us. Simply contact the office to set up this option.
We've run into a wide range of people and collections over the last 25 years. Although Just Collect is known for buying vintage sports cards and especially vintage baseball cards, we are also extremely interested in buying non-sports cards, too!
Every collection and every collector is different and we treat EVERY collection with the respect and attention that we show for our own collections. We understand that many have put their heart and souls into building their collections. So when you're ready to sell, we understand the feelings that you're going through and will work with you to help you reach a decision that is a WIN/WIN, because if you're not happy, we're not happy.
Whether you have vintage cards or modern wax you want to sell, you can reach out to us any time!