A trip to purchase toys from a storage shed turned out to be one of the biggest unopened finds of sports cards. A $1,500 gamble paid off in the thousands with unopened wax boxes holding rookie cards of Michael Jordan, Joe Montana, Dan Marino, John Elway, and more!
Rob Du Brey from Bellingham, Washington set out to review and purchase a toy collection from a 10’x15’ shed a local seller had. The volume of toys was incredible, and Du Brey offered the seller $1,500 and 40% of the profits after he doubled the investment. Way in the back, behind the toys, was a site you would drool over – sports cards. GOOD sports cards. ICONIC sports cards.
Usually in instances like this, one finds over-printed junk cards like 1987 Topps or 1990 Donruss baseball cards. While that seemed to be the case, Du Brey smartly looked inside a box labeled “1990 Donruss singles.” On top of the box was a sealed bag of Jumbo 1985 Star cards with a Michael Jordan rookie card. Before Fleer made the 1986-87 basketball set with the coveted MJ rookie, a company called Star released sets in clear baggies, not wax packs, and here was a SEALED bag with Jordan on top.The bag is valued around $4,000. Along with the sealed Star set, Du Brey did find an open, full set from 1986-87 Fleer INCLUDING the Jordan rookie. Price tag on a full set of 1986-87 Fleer cards is starting at $10,000.
A full CASE of 1988-89 Fleer basketball cards were found. A case is 12 boxes with 36 packs and 15 cards per pack. One box should yield three complete sets. Here you’ll find rookie cards of Reggie Miller, Scottie Pippen, and Dennis Rodman. One single box runs around $5,500. A PSA 10 Miller rookie hovers around $3,000.
Next came three boxes of 1984 Topps football cards. Each box also contains 36 packs and each pack has 15 cards. What could be inside? How about rookie cards of Dan Marino and John Elaway. Today one wax box will set you back around $2,500. A PSA 10 Marino rookie is worth around $4,000 and a 10 Elway is $6,000. Along with the sealed boxes, Du Brey found 13 loose Marino rookie cards!
There was one box of 1981 Topps football with four loose Joe Montana rookie cards sitting right on top.
While we love to focus on the unopened material (there wouldn’t be any card breaks without sealed packs, right?), the loose cards and sets in the storage shed were amazing. After finding the complete set of 1986-87 Fleer basketball cards with a Michael Jordan rookie card, multiple rookie cards of Dan Marino and Joe Montana, Du Brey discovered a complete 1976-1977 Topps basketball set, a complete set of 1956 Topps football cards, and 240 (yes, 240 SETS) of 2000 Multi-Ad Midwest League Top Prospect that included a young kid on his way up to the majors named Albert Pujols.
You can see the entire, amazing haul, and check out the pictures HERE.
In our storage shed is the snow plow for the Winter, a few quarts of oil for the car, and Corn Hole boards. What. A. Find. If you have any amazing stories like this, we’d love to hear about your discoveries! Send us a message any time here to hello@gildeds2.sg-host.com!
