$2 Million Vintage Sports Card Collection Sold
Dallas-area sports card dealer Jeremy Donson, who is known as "The Texas Snowman" on his longtime partner Chris Sewall's YouTube channel, was working a sports card show in September with his partner Bill Hughes when a man walked in with a large roller bag filled with approximately 500 slabs.
The man, a collector for 40 years who had become a dealer over the last couple, was interested in selling his impressive collection. He stopped at two or three other dealers to talk about it, and they all pushed him in Donson's and Hughes's direction, due to the size, scope, and value.
When he stopped by their table, they were blown away by what he had brought. Hughes offered him $500,000 on the spot just for what was there. Donson remembers seeing: eight T206 Red Portrait Ty Cobbs, a 1933 Sport Kings Bobby Jones graded a PSA 8, a T205 Cy Young graded a PSA 6, and a lot more high-dollar items.
The Monster - Why the T206 Baseball Card Sets Are the Most Important Ever & Why You Should Care
The collector was still unsure about what he wanted to do, so the three of them went out to lunch to talk about it. It turns out he had a lot more cards in his collection.
The next day, after sleeping on it, the collector came back and said he wanted to finish out the card show season and see how much of it he could sell himself.
"You never want to hear, 'Let's do a deal later, maybe,'" Donson told me. Over the next couple of months, Donson would text the collector occasionally to stay in touch.
In October, Donson's longtime occasional partner Chris Sewall called him and told him a man had stopped by his table at the Chantilly Card Show to tell him he was ready to sell. Donson brought Sewall in on the deal as a minority partner, and Donson called the collector to talk next steps.
"Chris and I work so well together," Donson told me, "Because we care more about each other and other people than we do about making money."
Old Baseball Cards on Twitter: Here are Ten Vintage Accounts to Follow
After Hughes flew to Atlanta to see the collection in person, they decided to meet the seller's asking price. They estimate the value at around $2 million, "but it's still a question mark." Some of the cards don't have a comparable sale to estimate value by in more than a decade, complicating valuation.
"We just need to do our best and name a price and put it on it," Jeremy told me about their strategy in this situation.
The collection came with a lot of very high end, high-demand cards, as well as some rarer pre-war items. It included:
- More than 50 Ty Cobb cards
- Over 50 cards total of Christy Mathewson, Walter Johnson, Honus Wagner, and Cy Young
- 29 1980-81 Topps Larry Bird and Magic Johnson rookie cards
- 14 1958 Topps Jim Brown rookie cards
- 7 Wayne Gretzky rookie cards
- A booklet of 12 Joe Jackson original game tickets
- Many cards of Jesse Owens, Pele, and pre-war boxing legends like Jack Johnson
- Ticket stubs from Owens’ gold medal-winning performances in the 1936 Olympics
There was also a significant amount of non-sports cards, including many examples of the 1931 Walt Disney and Mickey Mouse rookie card, and 1966 The Batman card.
Donson says they're still trying to figure out how to sell everything, between card shows, eBay, and spreading it out among various auction houses, including his own Collector Investor Auctions. Some are listed on Hughes's eBay store Comic-Warehouse, or will be soon.
"There was so much duplication in the collection, though," Donson told me. "When we agreed to buy the collection, we thought the seller would appreciate the opportunity to keep some stuff. So we picked out about $200k in cards, reduced the price accordingly, and asked if he'd want to keep it. He loved it."
"This was the highlight of my year in terms of sports card deals," Donson said. "Bill had done many deals for 7 figures, but Chris and I hadn't. I felt so blessed to have the opportunity to buy this. I felt appreciative to be entrusted with this by this long-term collector."
"I'm really enjoying being neck-deep in cards," he continued. "I feel like a kid in a candy store."
Mike runs the hobby YouTube channel Junk Wax Hero, where he talks about a lot of different aspects of the hobby from a collector’s perspective. His most popular series is Attic Find Friday. He also writes a free weekly hobby recap newsletter at junkwaxhero.com. It’s a cliche, but his favorite card is the 1989 Upper Deck Ken Griffey Jr.