Antiques Collector Selling Rare Baseball Cards Worth Thousands Found Inside Wooden Chest in Rhode Island

Dozens of rare baseball cards are now up for auction after they were discovered in an unusual place.

Antiques collector Tom Conrad bought the collection of rare cards for only $75 from someone who had initially picked them up at an estate sale in Providence, Rhode Island.

Inside a wooden chest, the buyer discovered 122 baseball cards, dating from 1909 to 1911, glued to its interior. This preservation method may have been what allowed the cards to stay intact for more than a century. Many of the cards remain stuck to the chest but are removable. The cards bear the images of baseball legends such as Cy Young, Christy Mathewson, and John McGraw. 

Conrad has listed the collection on his antiques Facebook page. The top bid for the cards has climbed to $6,700 as of Thursday, Oct. 16.   

According to a CBS News Boston report, experts estimate that a near-mint graded card from this collection — a 1909 Cy Young card — could sell for thousands.

"In poor condition, it's still a couple grand," said Matt Sharps, who works as a trading card specialist at Card Vault, a trading card shop co-owned by New England Patriots legend Tom Brady. "I saw a couple of years ago there was a sale, and a graded 8, which is near mint, sold for over $100,000."

Sharps told CBS News Boston that the cards are rare due to their distinctive history. "These cards used to come in boxes of cigarettes back in the day. You get a little card with your pack of cigarettes," Sharps explained. "A lot of them got destroyed, and people thought they were going to be worthless, so finding them still intact all this time later is unreal."