What I did last Summer: Found one of the Rarest Baseball Cards Ever Made

Last Summer (bored and on holliday), I was looking through a 19th century photo album that my mom has that was given to her by her Great Grandmother. These were not family pictures, but one my grandmother had salvaged from some yard sale or other. I was looking at some of the cool old macabre pics of dead Victorians that they used to take. As I was thumbing through, I noticed a card with a team on it... Then, I noticed that it was 1869 and said Red Stockings. No knowing a great deal about baseball history, I did some basic research and said whoa... this might be worth a few bucks. We contacted a noted auctioner and discovered it was actually worth between $10-20,000. It is currently up for auction and my mother is very excited. It's up to 11,000!

http://www.robertedwardauctions.com/site/bid/bidplace.asp?itemid=3471

It must of been really neat to find a treasure of a lifetime.

:7

that except for Harry Wright in the center, the players are dressed as if they were merchants or politicians...

By the way, that was the first all-professional team in the country, although some exceptional players had been paid since the mid-1850s.

They went bust in 1870...but a new club was formed as part of the National League in 1876.

Here's some more info...

http://www.1869reds.com/about.htm

That is, I think, the first card ever made.

That is a really cool find. Hope you spend some of the money on something as impractical as a baseball card.