An 1865 baseball card will soon be heading to the auction block.
According to Fox Sports , the anonymous seller bought the card at a garage sale. The Maine man bought a photo album, some coca-cola bottles, a couple of chairs, and an 1865 baseball card that could be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, for less than $100.
The 148-year-old baseball card is expected to sell for six figures when it gets auctioned off by the Saco River Auction Co. in Biddeford, Maine.
According to Sports Illustrated , the 1865 baseball card is much different than a modern baseball card. The commonplace baseball card didn’t become popular until the 1880s. The 1865 card is actually a photograph that was mounted onto a mat. The photo depicts the nine players of the Brooklyn Atlantics amateur baseball club and their general manager.
Troy Thibodeau of the Saco River Auction Company said that the only other copy of the card that he knows to exist is currently at the Library of Congress.
Thibodeau said that the age of the card, as well as the fact that it is extremely rare, should drive the card’s price up.
Thibodeau said:
“There hasn’t been another one that’s sold. When there are only two known in the world, what’s it worth?”
Six figures may be tough to hit but some baseball cards have been sold for millions. The Honus Wagner 1909 card, for instance, sold for close to $3 million in 2007. An 1888 card of Michael “King” kelly sold for $72,000 last summer.
