I haven’t really written about hobby finds here on PostWarCards before. I implied a find in my article about the 1971 Topps Winner Baseball Cards and the 4 Wax Boxes Seen at the 2021 National, and I mentioned that the hobby mocked Alan Rosen for advertising his finds in my review of his book. Given that I’m building the Unopened Archive, and I just mentioned Rosen’s book, aka Mr. Mint, I thought it would be fun to look back at Mr. Mint’s Find II of unopened material.
First, a “find” is when old trading cards surface with significant value that few collectors know about. And usually, those finds have a great story related to them. Alan Rosen used those stories to grow his brand (before branding was a thing in the hobby) through advertising and word of mouth.
Mr. Mint’s Find II was his >$400k 1954 and 1955 unopened box find from 1987 in Paris, Tennessee. Thanks to the Wayback Machine, I pulled the following screen capture from Mr. Mint’s old website, describing the Find II as having over 500 unopened boxes of 1954 and 1955 Topps and Bowman baseball cards. Plus, an additional 250+ boxes of 1954 and 1955 Bowman football unopened boxes, along with some 1955 Bowman baseball sets (I’ve read they were all missing Charles King’s card, who lived in Paris, TN).
In a November 20, 1987 advertisement Rosen also wrote that he was called to the deal by three Paris, Tennessee collector/dealers who came across the find in the basement of a former candy wholesaler. Many boxes were ruined by bugs and thrown away, and about a third were water damaged (some vintage packs on the market from this find show brown stains on the wrapper).
You can see from the advertisement that he was selling:
- 1954 Bowman baseball 5-cent packs for $125 and boxes for $2500.
- 1955 Bowman baseball 5-cent packs for $150 and boxes for $3000.
- 1955 Topps baseball 5-cent packs for $200 and boxes for $3500.
- 1954 Bowman football 5-cent packs for $20 and boxes for $425
- 1954 Bowman football 1-cent packs for $10 and boxes for $1000.
Many of these products were bought and ripped to complete sets; indeed, many high-grade cards in today’s graded market came from this find. But the prices have skyrocketed for those who managed to hang on to the unopened products. Here are a few recent sales:
- A 1954 Bowman baseball 5-cent wax pack graded PSA 8 sold for $4200 in the fall of 2021
- A 1955 Bowman Baseball 5-cent wax pack graded PSA 7 sold for $4680 in the Fall of 2021
- A 1955 Bowman Baseball 5-cent wax pack graded PSA 8 sold for $7200 in the Fall of 2021
- A 1955 Topps Baseball 5-cent wax pack graded PSA 5 sold for $36000 in the Spring of 2022, yes, $36k. REA wrote that it almost certainly originated from the 1987 Paris find.
- An empty 1955 Topps baseball 5-cent box sold for $1620 in the Summer of 2020
- A 1954 Bowman Football 5-cent wax pack graded PSA 8 sold for $1740 in the Summer of 2020
- A 1954 Bowman Football 1-cent wax pack graded PSA 8 sold for $420 in the Summer of 2020
- A 1954 Bowman Football 5-cent wax box sold for $46800 in July 2020
- A 1954 Bowman Football 1-cent wax box sold for $32400 in May 2020
It’s almost impossible to put a current market value at what a find like this one would go for today; the market saturation would be so incredible that if I found it, I would probably try to keep it a secret.
You might think that most cards have already been “found,” but that isn’t true. We keep reading announcements about previously privately held collections; Goldin advertised a big one at this year’s National. Keep your eyes open and happy collecting!