A Babe Ruth rookie card was discovered inside an old piano and it may just sell for $100,000
There's real treasure to be found out there. Sure, it might not be gold coins buried in secret pirate caves, but it could be something inside an everyday object, like, say, that old piano that's been in your family for generations.
That was the case for Ellen Kelly. Kelly found a 1916 Babe Ruth card, along with 111 others, hidden in her grandmother's player piano when she bought it for $25 at her family's estate sale in 1992. She noticed that the pedal on the piano was sticking and when a friend came to repair it, discovered the cards. As of Monday afternoon, the bidding was over $98,000.
“Best $25 I ever spent,” she told Sports Collectors Daily.
Goodwin & Co. 78 has a 1916 M101-4 Sporting News Blank Back Babe Ruth RC No. 151 BVG 2.5. Bidding ends April 25. https://t.co/0Hd8F3gep7 pic.twitter.com/UFht4bOOQk
— Goodwin & Co. (@GoodwinAuctions) April 12, 2019
Not only was the 1916 Babe Ruth card, showcasing the Sultan of Swat in his Red Sox pitching days, found in the piano, but a number of Hall of Fame greats like Connie Mack, Eddie Collins, Grover Cleveland, John McGraw and more were hidden in there and are now being auctioned. Which is quite the find in a piano that she said she never remembered ever working while her grandmother was alive. Of course, maybe the cards were the reason why the piano didn't work.
It's quite fitting that this Babe Ruth card was found in a piano. After all, there's a famous legend that Ruth pushed a piano into a pond to show off his strength. Now, that's a piano I want to find.
Michael Clair writes for MLB.com. He spends a lot of time thinking about walk-up music and believes stirrup socks are an integral part of every formal outfit.
