Hidden Treasure, That Was Already Mine

All of us that collect anything have heard the story before. Everyone has a tale of some golden gem of a card they had when they were kids that could mint them a fortune if they had it now. But, alas. It became bicycle spoke fodder or was flipped against a brick wall so many times it was now shaped like a shoe horn.

For those of us that didn't abuse our childhood cardboard the tale becomes similar in many ways. Like the stash of cards in the parents attic that somehow got given away at the church bizarre. Or the endless boxes and binders that were hidden away in the basement, only to succumb to the numerous floods and pump failures throughout the years. Any way you slice it, I think many of us have "those cards I used to have".

Well I was in the same boat. Until yesterday.

For my sons 6th birthday, my mom, step-dad, brother, and sister-in-law all decided to drive the 9+ hours from Pennsylvania to surprise my son. Mission accomplished. He was thrilled beyond believe and we had a really good time while they were here. Before coming out, my brother had told me he was bringing me something he had found while moving some stuff out of the house. When they arrived, he walked in with two Rubbermaid totes, obviously heavy since it took him and my step-dad to carry them. Not recognizing them, I only wondered what was inside.

After a full day of having some fun with the kids and the family birthday party, the evening was devoted to opening the totes. And there they were...6 monster boxes of my old baseball cards and a bunch of complete sets. I thought anything that I didn't get rid of was destroyed in the basement flood about 11 years ago. Apparently, as my brothers were growing up, the cards got moved up stairs and then eventually into the attic. Now that the house is being sold, they were discovered during cleaning. They are now back in the hands of their rightful owner.

In perusing a few of the boxes, I found all sorts craziness. Most of the baseball is from between 1981 and 1994 (when I stopped collecting baseball). The most intriguing thing was a 3" binder filled with non-sport stuff. There are some really weird cards in there that I don't remember having. I also found a 300 or so count box filled with Coors Brewing Company cards. Where they came from, I don't know. I gave them to my brother to put in his man cave in his new house.

So now the dilemma. I've now just increased my card inventory by, what I can only assume, is about 20,000 or more. 90% of it is baseball. I don't collect baseball. It is probably going to take me a few weeks to sort through all of it. I think I might post anything that I feel needs to be posted. If any fellow bloggers out there would be interested in maybe trading for some stuff too, I'm all ears. I think I might either try to break this up into players (which most of it already is) and teams.