A man found an unopened 72-year-old pack of baseball cards — potentially worth more than a million dollars — on Cape Cod.
Jason West still can't quite believe the discovery he made during a home demolition in Chatham, Massachusetts.
"Kind of in a pile of garbage, I saw this, what looked to me like a baseball bat," West said.
He says the 1952 Bowman pack had fallen through a crack in the floor, behind the stairs to the second floor. The pack was unreachable until recently, when the stairs and the home were demolished, leading to West's amazing find.
"This kid in Chatham went to the corner store to buy this pack and was running up the stairs and dropped it in the crack and it disappeared," West said.
Like fine wines have their years, 1952 was quite the year for baseball cards. Both baseball legends Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays were rookies that year, and their rookie cards are very valuable.
"I couldn't believe it," said Ryan Blake of Card Vault in Patriot's Place. "You never find something like this, this is like the grail pack of cards. If you can find one, that is the one you want to find."
U.S. & World
The rare discovery is all the buzz in the sports collectible world.
"This is one of the more incredible finds I have ever seen," said Eric Whiteback, known on social media as "The Collectibles Guru."
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Whiteback covers the collectibles market and says the unopened pack of cards could be worth upwards of $15,000. Here is where it gets tricky, though: If a Mantle or Mays card is inside, those cards are worth a lot more. If not, the pack isn't as valuable, but no one will know until it is opened.
"If you happen to pull one of those key Mays or Mantle cards in really great condition, there is a seven-figure ceiling on this," Whiteback said.
West says he is still undecided, but he's excited after his home run of a find.
"To a point, yeah, I do want to open it," West said. "But I don't want to kill the value of it, either, depending on what is in it."
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