Black Swamp Find baseball cards sell well at auction

The astonishing Black Swamp Find baseball card auction was highlighted by a $239,000 Wagner

37 cards from the Black Swamp Find, a collection of 700 previously unknown E 98 series baseball cards from 1910, has sold well in the US.

Heritage Auctions' first sale of the mint condition 1910 cards, starring 30 greats from the game's early years, was highlighted by a PSA Gem Mint 10 graded Honus (or Hans as he's known in the series) Wagner, which sold for $239,000.

The $239,000 star of the auction

Named after the damp area in Defiance, Ohio where they were recently found, the $3m-valued collection has turned the baseball card market on its head. The number of examples authenticated by Professional Sports Authenticator (PSA) doubled from 700 to 1,400 overnight, with what were previously thought to be the finest examples now significantly down the pecking order.

A grade 7 was the highest ranking Ty Cobb card prior to the find. There are now 16 Ty Cobbs with a 9 grading.

A collection of 27 leading examples, and PSA's top-ranked set, sold for $286,000, while nine colour variations, also packaged as a single lot, made $40,331, comfortably up on the $25,000 estimate ahead of the August 2 auction.

Heritage Auctions' director of sports auctions Chris Ivy told the Baltimore Sun: "Typically when someone calls and says they have some of these cards,  they were packaged with candy and are stained and in terrible condition. So when they sent us an example with eight of them… those eight cards would have been a find on their own. They were absolutely mint."

The most valuable baseball card ever auctioned is a 1909-1911 T206 series Honus Wagner, which achieved $2.8m in 2009.

The Baltimore auction is the latest in a string of impressive baseball card results this year. Look out for more from the Black Swamp Find over the next couple of years.

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Recent and related articles

·  PSA 10 Roberto Clemente baseball card brings $432,690 | 21 May 2012

·  Unique Honus Wagner baseball card up 83.3% on estimate | 14 May 2012

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Images: Heritage Auctions