Man Finds Hundreds Of Rare Baseball Cards While Cleaning Out Father's Home

SACRAMENTO, CA — A Northern California man discovered a treasure trove of sports history while cleaning out a closet in his father’s home: Over 600 pre-war baseball cards.

The father, Ed, began collecting the cards when he was a child in Oakland during the early 1920s and would often receive them from uncles as gifts, according to an Auction Monthly news release.

"Like many of those who grew up in the Depression, my father and members of his family did not discard anything," Ed’s son told Auction Monthly. "When I was young, elementary school age, I remember my father showing me the cards and the tin they were in."

The highlight of the collection is a variety of Babe Ruth cards, although there are hundreds of rare Hall of Famers in the bunch. The collection will be sold by Auction Monthly.

Ed’s son, who was identified by KTLA as John and whose full name was withheld by Auction Monthly, found the cards in Ed’s Tracy home after Ed died and brought the collection to his own residence in Sacramento. It sat in storage for years while John considered what to do with it, according to the outlet.

The cards are expected to sell in the “high six figures,” an Auction Monthly official told KTLA.

Highlights from the collection include the following cards:

• 1919-1921 W514 "Shoeless" Joe Jackson;
• Nearly every player from the iconic 1919 “Black Sox” team;
• 1921 E220 National Caramel Babe Ruth;
• 1922 American Caramel E121 Babe Ruth;
• 1919-1921 Babe Ruth W514;
• 1920 W519 Babe Ruth;
• Ty Cobb 1922 American Caramel E121;
• 1921 W516 Ty Cobb;
• 1920 W519 George Sisler.