Pick A Card

Store makes two rare card sales in same day
By CHERYL HALL Dallas Morning News

Call it the ultimate luck of the draw, or in this case, the pull.

Nick Redwine and his wife, Debbie, have been in the trading card business in Far North Dallas for 21 years. But the couple never had a day as exciting as Jan. 6, when they sold two remarkably valuable cards.

Shortly after their store opened that Wednesday, customer Evan Bennett opened a $50 packet of five Topps cards and pulled out a one-of-a-kind Jackie Robinson. The authenticated signature of baseball's first black player was cut out and inserted into the specially made card, making it worth thousands of dollars.

It was part of the Topps Tribute, a worldwide treasure hunt created by Topps Co. The cards in the series include the Jackie Robinson and 15 other one-of-a-kind cards featuring deceased baseball legends.

Because of Robinson's place in history, his card is considered the second-most-valuable find in the Tribute series -- although some might argue that Yankee great Lou Gehrig might edge out Robinson. Babe Ruth is the Holy Grail.

Such cards are known as "cut autographs." Card makers buy celebrity signatures on legal documents or checks, cut them out and mat them into trading cards. These are put in multicard packs in multipack boxes that are dispersed to stores and distributors around the world.

It's just one way the card companies are reinventing the business after overproduction of regular cards nearly killed the hobby in the early 1990s.

In addition to cut autographs, card makers create "relic cards" by implanting a piece of a uniform, bat, bench, seat from the old Yankee Stadium or a patch of Tom Landry's fedora -- you name it -- into a card.

For the Redwines, who own Nick's Sports Cards at Coit and Campbell roads, selling the Robinson was like selling a winning lottery ticket -- although they didn't get a bonus for the transaction.

But the best was yet to come.


Brian Leftin, their last customer that day, bought a box of 30 Tribute cards, then another box and finally a third. During the process, he pulled a half-dozen interesting and valuable cards that kept him buying more -- all the while saying he wanted the Babe Ruth.

Debbie, halfway watching as she did inventory, told him it was a pipe dream.

Leftin was resolute. "I pulled the last card in the last pack of the last box, and I said, 'Debbie, I got the card.' "

''He's like, 'Oh my gosh, dude! Oh my gosh!' " Debbie says. "I said, 'Yeah, right.' Then he turns the card and shows it to me. I jumped up and ran with it to Nick. It was actually the cut."

Collectors around the globe had a one-in-2,187 shot at finding a cut-autograph legend in a five-card pack, says Clay Luraschi, director of product development at Topps in New York.

Topps only allotted Nick's three cases of Tributes -- a total of 360 cards.

So what are the odds that the two most valuable Topps Tribute cards would wind up in a tiny hobby shop and be bought on the same day?

Literally unfathomable, Luraschi says. "To have two pulled within hours at the same store is amazing. But then to have them be those two names is unbelievable. I don't know what equation that comes out to be. That's a totally cool story."

I've never been a big sports card nut. I guess I didn't get started early enough or I just never got the collectors gene but I wasn't one of the kids who spent hours in the sports card store. In fact the only time I ever went in one was when was my mom was getting her hair done and I had nothing better to do. And the only cards I ever collected were Buffalo Bills cards (which should be worth nothing in about 20 years). But I did find this story really interesting from the standpoint of how inlikely it is one store would get these two valuable cards. It reignites my passion for winning the lottery so I guess I better go buy a ticket.