 Media Credit: Nick Infusino/The Daily Northwestern Lionel Carter began collecting one-cent baseball cards 74 years ago. He is selling his collection of more than 50,000 cards for fear of further robberies. [Click to enlarge]
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By Karina Martinez-CarterThe Daily Northwestern
When Evanston resident Lionel Carter purchased his first baseball card, Babe Ruth was still hitting home runs.
Seventy-four years and about 50,000 cards later, Carter, 89, has been forced to put his collection up for sale.
Burglars ransacked Carter's home last November. They took his wife's jewelry and emptied a drawer filled with a number of his baseball cards.
The stolen cards were recovered, but the jewelry was not. Carter feared the thieves would return. He said the police gave him two options to ensure his safety: Either put the cards in a safety deposit box or sell the collection.
"I sold every one of the cards because I didn't want anything to remind me of them," Carter said. "They meant so much to me (after) so many years of collecting. They were just a big part of my life.
"But you can't put 50,000 baseball cards in albums in a vault, so I had no choice but to sell them."
The sale is being conducted in three installments through Mastro Auctions, a prominent online auction house that specializes in vintage baseball cards. The first part of the collection opened for bidding on the Web site Monday and will close April 27.
One set of 48 cards from 1938 - including cards of Joe DiMaggio, Jimmie Foxx and Mickey Mantle - already fetched a bid of $139,493.
Brian Marren, Mastro Auctions' vice president of acquisitions, called Carter a "real gentleman and nice guy" and "one of the true pioneers in the hobby." Marren said he expects Carter's collection to sell for between $2 and $3 million when the last auction closes in June.
"He was very condition-conscious years before anyone thought about it," Marren said. "Scarcity and condition are the two important ingredients with antiques, and what makes (the collection) really special is that he had the foresight to pay attention to those things."
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Viewing Comments 1 - 3 of 3
Roger Brown
posted 11/18/07 @ 6:38 AM CST
The 1951 Bowman cards collected by Mr. Carter are an absolute joy! Such a shame to see the set broken up. All the best to Mr. Carter...he preserved an important piece of Americania!
public auctions
posted 12/09/07 @ 7:38 PM CST
While I agree it was a travesty of sorts, still seemed to me like a necessity. I porbably would of done the same in his case.
Frank Bruno
posted 8/27/08 @ 3:36 AM CST
What a true collector to bad theres not to many around like him any more!!!! I think i would of passed them down to my kids or grand kids with the aggrement for them never to be sold!!! Cards like that should be kept in the famialy for many many generations!!!
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