Baseball Card from 1865

In 1865, the players of the Brooklyn Atlantics gathered around their manager for a photograph. Here's that photo mounted on a card. It's among the oldest baseball cards in existence. One lucky fellow in Maine found it at a rummage sale and bought it (among other items) for $100. He'll sell it for a lot more:

Six-figure bids are expected when an auction house sells a rare 148-year-old baseball card that was discovered at a rummage sale in a rural area in the far northeastern state of Maine, the auction house manager said Wednesday.

A man found the card by chance in a photo album he bought while antique picking in the small town of Baileyville on the Canadian border, said Troy Thibodeau of Saco River Auction Co. in Biddeford. [...]

In its book "Baseball Americana," the Library of Congress calls it the first dated baseball card, handed out to supporters and opposing teams in a gesture of bravado from the brash Brooklynites, who were dominant and won their league championships in 1861, 1864 and 1865.

It's not known how many were produced, but the Library of Congress is aware of only the two copies. A trading card grading firm, Sportscard Guaranty LLC, has authenticated the card as the real thing, said Bob Luce, senior grader at the New Jersey company.

Link -via American Digest


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