A small wooden box was filled with a big treasure! Multiple cards of Babe Ruth, a Cy Young card over 100 years-old, rookie cards of Ted Williams, as well as vintage football cards of gridiron greats Jim Thorpe and Bronko Nagurski were all sitting inside this unique home for such rare and valuable cards. Just Collect has proudly purchased The Wooden Box Collection.
In my 25 years of purchasing collections from all over the world, the manner in which cards are stored still surprises me each and every time! From a Mickey Mantle rookie card found stored with jars of pickles to a Michael Jordan rookie card that was stored in Tupperware, opening these unique homes to rare cards is a pure thrill. The collection I just purchased contains rare and valuable cards, some of the most famous in the hobby, came to me in a tiny, wooden box.
This small box, made of wood, looked quite unassuming. Maybe an old cigar box? Family jewelry, perhaps, under the lid? Inside this small box was a big treasure. Look at the first picture in the slide above; all of those vintage cards just nestled inside!
In the second photo are four cards from the 1909-11 T206 set. Produced over 100 years ago, these cards were inserted into different brands of tobacco! The cards you remember from your childhood days came in wax packs with that wonderful stick of gum, but your grandparents found their cards inside of packs of cigarettes. When you flip the cards over, you'll find an ad for the tobacco rather than player statistics. There are four cards here, each of a player inducted into the baseball Hall of Fame. Joe Kelley, Ty Cobb, Joe Tinker, and Eddie Collins. Kelley led all of baseball in stolen bases way back in 1898! You know what some baseball players didn't have him their homes back in 1898? Electricity. Let that sink for a minute and then realize how old these cards are! Ty Cobb is one of the greatest hitters in the history of baseball and still holds the record for highest career batting average at .366. Cobb stands out in that green background. Joe Tinker, a two-time World Series champion, was inducted into the HOF in 1946. Eddie Collins won the World Series six times and rounds out these four stellar cards.
The third photo in the slider above shows a run of more 1909-11 T206 cards, and another Tobacco set, the 1911 T205 cards with the brown border in the third row. A couple of 1908-10 American Caramel (E91) cards (first three cards in the bottom row), and a few strip cards can be seen. Speaking of strip cards - oh my - picture four.
1920 W516-1 Strip Cards are in picture four, and are these beauties. Cards were produced in a strip, and meant to be cut into individual cards you might find in a candy store. Right on top you see two more Ty Cobb cards, and the next row features a pair of Babe Ruth cards sandwiching Grover Alexander. Alexander dominated from the mound in his time, leading baseball in the "triple crown" categories of wins, strikeouts, and ERA in three different seasons! We could fill this entire article up with stats and stories about the greatest baseball player of all-time, Babe Ruth. If you've never watched a single baseball game or held a baseball card in your life, you still know the name Babe Ruth. This particular Ruth card is one of our favorites and his position is listed as Pitcher. Ruth was a pitcher before he was crushing home runs! In 1916, Ruth won 23 games and had an ERA of 1.75 to lead all of baseball as a pitcher. Years later, Ruth would set home run records galore as a hitter. Ruth's two-way accomplishments from the pitching mound and batter's box is why you often hear about current star, Shohei Ohtani, be compared to the baseball legend.
Another Babe Ruth card can be seen in the fifth photo! These cards are from the 1933 Goudey set. Like the 1909-11 T206 set, the 1933 Goudey cards are highly sought and are quite popular among collectors. Ruth is in the middle row, middle card, with lumber in his hands. The star power in this photo is incredible. From top left to bottom right: Joe Cronin (Inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1956), Carl Hubbell (HOF 1947), Jesse Haines (HOF 1970), Dizzy Dean (HOF 1953), Babe Ruth (HOF 1936), Tris Speaker (HOF 1937), Paul Waner (HOF 1952), KiKi Cuyler (HOF 1968), and Mickey Cochrane (HOF 1947). More cards from this fantastic set are shown in the sixth photo.
A pair of Ted Williams rookie cards are on deck in photo seven! 1939 Play Ball cards feature actual black and white images of players and are larger than the tobacco. A Teddy Ballgame is on the left, Yankees legend, Joe DiMaggio is in the center, and a second Ted Williams on the right! Ted Williams won the "triple crown" of batting by leading baseball in average, home runs, and RBI on two different occasions. In 1941, Williams had a batting average of .406 and is still the last player to bat over .400 in a season to date! How good of a batting average is .406? The top two averages in 2023 were .354 and .337, respectively. Off the field, Ted Williams served in two wars and flew 39 missions! Joe DiMaggio played 13 seasons for the New York Yankees and won 9 World Series tiles. All DiMaggio did was succeed! DiMaggio won three MVP awards and still holds the baseball record for getting a hit in consecutive games with 56 straight in 1941.
1948 Bowman baseball cards are pictured in the eighth photo. The set itself is very small, consisting of just 48 total cards. The names in the set are astounding, though. The first two cards on the top are rookies of Stan Musial. Stan The Man is a first-ballot Hall of Famer with three MVP awards, seven batting titles, and won 3 World Series titles in his career that included 24 (yes, 24) All-Star games. A Warren Spahn rookie card is next. Spahn led the league in wins eight time, ERA three times, and pitched two no-hitters in his illustrious career. Yogi Berra's rookie card is there on the top right, just after Spahn. Yogi is the ultimate winner having more World Series championships than any other player with TEN rings as a player. Not only did Berra win, he did it as one of the best players in the league, winning three MVP awards. Hall of Famers and baseball greats line this photo as we continue with Bob Feller, Ralph Kiner x2, Phil Rizzuto, Johnny Mize, and Enos Slaughter.
The black and white cards you see in photo 9 are a run of 1948 Bowman baseball cards on top along with a few 1936 Goudey, 1940 Play Ball, and a 1934 Batter Up.
Not only did the wooden box have vintage baseball cards inside, I also found iconic football cards. As you stare at the 11th photo in that slide show, you see two all-timers. Two Jim Thorpe rookie cards and a Bronko Nagurski rookie are special highlights of the collection. The Thorpe cards are from a set called 1933 Goudey Sport Kings which showcases the best athletes from various sports. Jim Thorpe may be the greatest athlete ever to live. Thorpe won two Olympic Gold medals in Track and Field, is in both the College and Pro Football Hall of Fames, and even played Major League Baseball for a few seasons. The Bronko Nagurski card is from the 1935 National Chicle set, which is another small release that has only 36 total cards. Aside from an awesome nickname (born Bronislau Nagurksi), Bronko won three NFL championships on his way to the Hall of Fame. Believe it or not, Bronko was so tough, he played games with a cracked vertebrae.
Vintage football cards pack the twelfth photo. A run of 1948 Bowman football cards are the black and white gems you see on the top and bottom, with more 1935 National Chicle cards in the middle.
Jack Johnson and vintage boxing cards highlight photo thirteen. Johnson was the heavyweight champion from 1908 to 1915! The three Johnson cards in the top row are from the 1910 T218 Mecca Champions set (first two cards) and the 1910 E79 Philadelphia Caramel set. Other cards from these two sets are below the Johnson cards.
Inside the box were other tobacco and cola branded cards that you can see in the fourteenth photo. From 1929-34 are Coca-Cola World of Nature Series cards, 1909-12 T51 Murad Cigarettes cards of various colleges, and more unique non-sports cards you simply do not see every day.
One of the most "recent" and "newer" cards from this collection, the 1948 Bowman cards, came out in a time before players wore helmets, when the world had no clue what the Internet was, and we saw the first ever CBS Evening News. Now try to imagine what the world was like in 1909 when those T206 cards were produced.
Condition is a HUGE factor in the value of a card. To grade a card from a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being Gem Mint (a flawless card), one change in a grade could mean thousands if not tends of thousands of dollars! Let's use that 1933 Goudey Babe Ruth card you see above as an example, a "1" is valued around $4,000 and a "2" is valued around $8,000. When you get into that high-grade territory of an "8", expect to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars. While the cards in this collection have rounded corners and creases, each are still quite valuable as there are not many high-grade examples. Remember - these cards were distributed in packs of cigarettes or given out with gum to kids at candy stores - nobody thought how to protect and store cards properly. As a kid, maybe either you or your parents put your cards in bike spokes, too!
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. I have a two-step process: research and appraise the collection and then make the highest offer possible. With collections of this size, I must be thorough and treat the collection with the care it deserves.
My name is Leighton, owner of Just Collect, and professional sports card treasure hunter! If you're interested in selling your collection, reach out directly to Leighton@JustCollect.com.
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.
We can also meet with you in New York City.
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!