A crazy story about a hoarder's treasures

bowlarama

I just had to share this crazy story with my fellow PSA forum members. My friend and I both supplement our incomes by buying & selling a wide variety of collectibles. My passion is vintage sportscards and his is comics, toys & action figures. We have a church friend who earns a living as a jack-of-all trades handyman. He does landscaping, basic handyman repairs, moving, garage cleaning, etc. Anything and everything to make a buck here and there. He has always reached out to us when he comes across sportscards, comics and memorabilia.

We all know how 99% of these stories end up... Monster boxes full of worthless late 80s-early 90's junk wax, worthless comics and beanie babies that people stockpiled thinking they'd be worth a lot of money someday.

But 4 weeks ago something different happened when our friend stopped by to visit...

He'd been trying to help out an elderly member from the church. He was hired to get a house and yard cleaned up so that an elderly man could list it for sale. He went by to provide an estimate but the home had so much junk in that walking around was impossible. He told the homeowner that he could quote a price on the cleaning and repairing of the house, but that it would be more cost effective to call Salvation Army first and donate all the boxes of unwanted stuff. They agreed. A week later he went by the house to get started and he was shocked to find all the junk still piled everywhere. Apparently Salvation Army had refused to accept it because it was “just trash”.

Our friend wasn't really looking forward to hauling this stuff to the dump, but in order to get started on the project it had to go. He agreed on a price of $500 to haul away all the debris from this hoarder house. He started in the garage and took two trailers full of trash to the dump. Then he came back the next day to start in the house. When he got there, the old man was looking at some comic books. He said he was reminiscing to when his dad would bring him home comics from the 5&10. Luckily my friend was smart enough to know these may have some value so he said told the old homeowner that he may be able to sell those to someone who collects them. They agreed that the sales proceeds would be split 50/50.

THIS IS WHERE I ENTER THE PICTURE...

My friend swings by and says he found some comic books while cleaning out a house and thought we may be interested in buying them. Of course, We're expecting the usual junk stuff when he pulls a few Batman .10 & .12 comics dating back to the 1950s. Just a few books all stored together in one large ziploc baggie and wrapped up in newspaper dated 1973.

Where did you get these? What else you got? Any sportscards?

He says, I have a whole trailer full of boxes I was about to take to the dump, but I thought these may be worth keeping. We couldn't resist the opportunity to see what other treasures may be lurking in the trash so we convinced him to unload a few boxes off the trailer just to see a sampling of what was being thrown away. It was like a time capsule from the 1950s. Old clocks, glassware, smaller home décor, magazines, stamps, WWII memorabilia and some Beatles trading cards.

Tell us again where you got this stuff...and he commences to tell us the story from above...

We tell him that he maybe sitting on a goldmine and not even know it. He suggests that we accompany him to the house.

YESSSSSSSS of course we would.

We pull into an unimpressive, quiet little neighborhood. The home can't be more than 1,500 feet with a small garage. He knocks on the door and this little old man in his 70s or 80s answers. Come on in, I see you brought some helpers with you this time.

To be honest, we're looking around and all we can see is boxes and bags stacked halfway up the walls inside (fully encompassing every room in the house). This was my first real experience inside a hoarders house and it wasn't a pleasant experience. We are standing in the kitchen and the old man is sharing his story about how his wife passed away a few years back, how his health isn't what it used to be, etc. etc and that he just wants to get the place cleaned and sold so that he has money to live on. We told him that we had some money to give him for the comics and we handed him $300 in cash for the few that we got. He teared up with joy (which caused me to do the same)

I shared with the old man that it was neat that his father used to bring home comics for him to read, but it was a shame that his dad didn't bring him baseball cards instead because they would be valuable too.

“Oh I have a box or two around here somewhere. He comes back in a couple moments and says here's a shoebox full of some cards. Just take them with you and let me know what they are worth. I was just going get rid of them with all the rest of the junk.”

Obviously my expectations were not very high and I politely said thanks I will be sure and look at them when I get to the office. Needless to say I was amazed at what I found in a box or roughly 500 cards from the 50s

Fast forward about 4 weeks into “the find”. We have finished removing all the boxes from the house. We are going through little by little everyday. Some of the best items have been sent off for authentication and grading, others being sold on Ebay, and some are being sold on collector specific sites like this PSA forum.

It's amazing to think that all of the stuff we uncovered was refused by the local charitable organization and was destined for the trash dump. It's also amazing that my friend had the foresight to stop by and talk with us first before hauling it to the dump (although he did make two dump drops before speaking with me). In this day and age of “me first, Craigslist junk haulers” I'm proud to say that the old man is not being taken advantage of as we are being very good stewards with the old man's treasures. To date he has received several thousand dollars and I am certain the total will exceed well into the 5 figures by the time we are done. He shed another tear when sharing the fact that it was a recent church visit that moved him with the "You can't take it with you" sermon. He also said that it was the first time he had given a tithe to church in 30 years. He hope was that God would bless him with a quick sale of his home. Little did he know how much treasure almost ended up in the dump.

I hope you have enjoyed reading the saga as much as I have enjoyed being a part of this treasure find. I plan on sharing a few additional posts related to this story over the next few days in addition to posting some scans/pics of some of the things we have unearthed (including of course vintage sportscards)

I do intend to offer some of the more desirable cards on the BST forum and I have already sent 400+ minor stars and nice vintage commons into COMC for listing.

01mikep

Wow. Just amazing. Good on you for doing him right. Glad you got there in time!

bowlarama

Scans of a few of the items ...

OldEnglishD5

Wow. Very cool.

tonylags

Very cool story, however, now that's a nice scanner, I'm looking for a new one, what is it?

bowlarama

Brother MFC-J480DW $79 at Office Max

grote15

Wow, terrific find and great write up! The finds are still out there,!

TheMick

Anyone who collects cards is a hoarder too!! Amazing story!

GoDodgersFan

Thanks for sharing. A nice story and there are still collections to be found.

divecchia

This is a terrific story and a great read.

Thanks for sharing,

Donato

byronscott4ever

We'd all love to have this kind of story

JBrules

Cool story and thanks for sharing.

ldferg

Great story and find.

Piggs

What an adventure. Great story and good luck with your haul.

Dboneesq

Wow, nice find. Thanks for sharing. Best of luck with your sales. It's nice to know that you guys were fair with the elderly gentleman.

MarsAttacks

Awesome story and photos. Congratulations on the find! Thanks so much for sharing with us!

mrmojorisin

Great story, look forward to more pix.

bowlarama

Still going through stuff looking for more vintage cards, but I did come across a 1950s Harley Davidson riding cap. Then shortly after I found a box of old photos, from 1955 that included these of him posing on his Harley and wearing the cap.

He still has the motorcycle too. More stories and pics to come.

baseballfan

good stuff!!

sounds like a ton of fun. cant wait to see where it ends up

mcolney1

The Wild One

SUGID_Sports

What's the difference between a hoarder and a collector? Focus, boundaries, and respect.

ThoseBackPages

This is incredible!

secretstash

My guess is there is more. If he knew about a box he probably doesn't know about several others. Unless he goes through the rooms and lists whats in every box before you open it?

Nice find. Those Mays are my favorite.

bowlarama

Well, I ultimately sent in 5 star cards from this find. Grades popped today.

Flood PSA 8
Maris PSA 5
WIlliams A/S PSA 4
Mays PSA 3.5
Clemente PSA 3

Should get them back next week. All will be for sale. Still have some other raw cards on my EBay page and 400+ 1958 cards added to a newly setup COMC account.

Still sorting through all sorts of unique, oddball collectibles.

1954

Great story and a wonderful write up.

Cakes

I thought the Clemente would have been closer to a PSA 5. I guess I will never understand or grade tough enough.

Jimmy_Commonpants

@bowlarama said:
Well, I ultimately sent in 5 star cards from this find. Grades popped today.

Flood PSA 8
Maris PSA 5
WIlliams A/S PSA 4
Mays PSA 3.5
Clemente PSA 3

Should get them back next week. All will be for sale. Still have some other raw cards on my EBay page and 400+ 1958 cards added to a newly setup COMC account.

Still sorting through all sorts of unique, oddball collectibles.

Wow, I would have thought all but the Flood would have graded out higher based upon the pictures. Those cards in crap condition(3-4) are very plentiful and not very desirable unfortunately. Unless those all have creases that I can't see, I'd bust out all but the Flood.

Dboneesq

@Cakes said:
I thought the Clemente would have been closer to a PSA 5. I guess I will never understand or grade tough enough.

Take a look at the Pirate in the box at the bottom right of the Clemente. On the top right of the box, it looks like there is a "hook shape" indentation in the card. Very possibly from writing on a piece of paper and the card was underneath the paper at the time. (Is there a bit of paper missing on the top edge above the "C" in Clemente?) This being said, it's a real nice looking card for the grade.

bowlarama

Yeah, I was kinda disappointed in the 3's and 4's/ Also thought the Maris was a lock for a 6. I probably will crack out and resub those or just sell raw (as it is frustrating to wait so long for the grades to pop)

KbKards

The Clemente above shows several creases coming in from right edge in the middle section of the card, and also in the top left corner area, in addition to the hook shape impression mentioned above which was likely caused by a hair in the screwdown. If you're just grading a picture and not seeing the defects then a 3 is low, but the defects are there and affect the grade, unless of course you own the card. The Maris has some print issues at left, off-center 2 ways, and heavier corner wear to expect any more than a 5. It's not a nice card for a 5 holder and would be a waste of money trying to get a 6. Just keep them in the holders and sell as is. If you pop out Clemente to sell raw then it's still a creased card, and the grade you call it should take that into consideration.