Fresno collectors uncover rare 1869 baseball card

[Reschke]

Absolutely amazing that this woman found this card.

Huddleston directed Gallego to a friend who would know what to do: Rick Mirigian, a local concert promoter and card trader who sold a rare basketball card in 2004 for $62,100.

In the meantime, Gallego didn't want the card to get lost, so she put it in a sandwich bag and push-pinned it to her laundry room wall.

"If it fell off the wall, the cat would have ate it," Gallego says. "Well, or the dog."

When she met with Mirigian, she found out what the card was -- an 1869 advertisement with a picture of the first professional baseball team, the Cincinnati Red Stockings.

"When I came to meet her and she took it out of a sandwich Baggie and she was smoking a cigarette, I almost fainted," Mirigian says.

"They've uncovered a piece of history that few people will ever be able to imagine or comprehend. And it comes out of Fresno," he says. "That card is history. It's like unearthing a Mona Lisa or a Picasso."

http://www.fresnobee.com/263/story/1101238.html

[avionix]

That is cool.  Wish I could find something like that.  Knowing my luck though, the original owner would find out and sue me.   

[oakranger]

yea, it is a good thing that somebody didn't screw her over.

[Treize69]

Amazing thing is, its a team thats (sort of) still around. The team itself was disbanded at least once and reestablished, but the modern Cincinatti Reds trace their lineage all the way back to the Red Stockings.

I'm guessing that card is going to get a lot of interest from the team, if not MLB itself. I mean, its not like it was one of the hundreds of flash-in-the-pan barnstorming teams from the 19th century that nobodys ever heard of. Its REAL history right there.

[avionix]

Can't fault them for wanting to get the money out of it, but it would be nice to see that donated to the Baseball Hall of Fame.  That way all baseball enthusiasts could enjoy it, rather than just a few.

[stroker71]

Can't fault them for wanting to get the money out of it, but it would be nice to see that donated to the Baseball Hall of Fame.  That way all baseball enthusiasts could enjoy it, rather than just a few.

So buy it and donate it.

[smkelly13]

Why can't I ever find something extraordinary like that?  I'm jealous, I want my meal ticket out of blue collarville.

[Curlew]

I once found a modly peice of bread that was estimate to be from 1946, and it looked like mickey mouse was on it too, anybody want to waste millions on my worthless item or should i donate it to the bread hall of fame?