This is my story of how I found a rare Tom Brady card from early in his career buried in my card collection.
Maybe it's not the same as ESPN reporting on a story of the Hench family finding rare cards in the attic of their family home in Ohio. That was one of the most significant baseball card discoveries of all time (would later come to be known as the Black Swamp find), as it included a 1910 E98 Hans (Honus) Wagner which would be graded by PSA as gem mint 10, and have a population of 1.
And maybe it's not the same as the Al Rosen find back in 1986 that included 75 Mickey Mantle cards from 1952 Topps -- a find that Sports Collectors Digest ranked in 2021 as the most significant sports card find, ever.
Black Swamp Find Honus Wagner and a 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle |
Maybe my find of a rare Tom Brady card buried deep in my collection is not significant to the sports card collectible industry, but it is significant to me -- and this is the story.
30 Years Ago
My interest in sports card collecting began back in 1984 when I was just a 9-year-old boy growing up in the small town of Kingsford, Michigan. That year marked the start of my fandom for Dan Marino, Ryne Sandberg, and Michael Jordan. We had a grocery store just two blocks from my house that was owned by a family friend where I was able to buy packs of cards with my weekly allowance.
My attention would shift from football cards to baseball cards with the release of the beautiful wood-grained borders of 1987 Topps. My friends and I would take our bikes from the Little League field at LoDal Park to local card shows at the Birchwood or Midtown Mall. We lived and breathed baseball. I still remember my Dad telling me that I should hang on to the Mark McGwire. As a Cubs fan, I didn't see much American League baseball because it wasn't on TV, but my Dad was reading about McGwire hitting home runs (33 by the All-Star break) and knew that this could have some value. Of course, this was the start of the "junk wax era" and this card is not as valuable as his 1985 Topps Olympic card, but I digress -- it was still a big part of my youth collecting.
1987 Topps Mark McGwire rookie card |
Once I entered high school, got my driver's license, and discovered the importance of girls, my card collecting would taper off. By 1991, my common cards were stored in shoe boxes and any card that had a value of more than $1 (which to a kid in the late '80s was a fortune) was safely stored inside a 9-pocket protector page and kept inside 3-ring binders.
I had four total binders for my prized cards and these binders were all stacked together in a plastic milk crate that I "borrowed" from my job working in the dairy department of the local grocery store. This milk crate would be moved from my parent's home to college, to my first apartment after college, and then in 2001 to my first house in Menasha, Wisconsin. Through all of these moves, I might have taken the binders out no more than a handful of times to look at the best of my cards.
20 Years Ago
As with most kids working in their first professional job, I found myself with a few more dollars in my pocket than when I was a poor college student looking forward to 99 cent Whopper Wednesday. So in 2002, I decided to check out the local hobby store in the Fox Valley to see what the current sports card landscape had to offer.
Just a few months earlier, a guy named Tom Brady lead the New England Patriots to their first Super Bowl win over the Greatest Show on Turf (Kurt Warner led St. Louis Rams). As everyone knows, Tom was a sixth-round draft pick (#199) in the 2000 NFL draft coming out of the University of Michigan. He took over for an injured Drew Bledsoe in September of 2001 and the rest is history.
So I decided to hand over $70 at the local card shop in late August and walked out with a box of 2002 Topps Chrome football which featured the current G.O.A.T. quarterback at the time (Joe Montana) on top along with Tom Brady. Brady had several rookie cards in 2000, but his first Topps card came in 2002.
When I went home to rip the box, I was left with that lukewarm feeling of not pulling any big hits other than a Detroit Lions Robert Porchert Pro Bowl jersey card -- not exactly striking it rich. I did pull three Tom Brady cards, which were his base card (#100), his weekly wrap up card (#150), and a ring of honor insert card. Keep in mind that at the time, he was just an up-and-coming player, so these cards had no real resale value. And back then, I had no idea what "graded" cards were or the process to submit a card for grading. I put the rookies and the star cards into my 3 ring binder to protect them, knowing that I really didn't have anything special.
PSA Sales as or late 2020 |
Eventually, the package showed up in Des Moines, then Los Angeles, then Pasadena, then Newport Beach on February 16. And I was able to take a deep sigh of relief that the cards were safely at PSA. I am so thankful that Scott was persistent on this and was able to stay in constant communication with all those that had cards in that sub. Now the waiting period would begin, which was assumed to be 9-12 months based on the backlog of submissions at PSA. I quickly tried to forget about my cards in hopes that by some miracle, they would be ready by Christmas.
Just before Christmas, I received a message from Scott about my cards.
He said that PSA had notified him of an upcharge on the grading of the Tom Brady card in the amount of $2,000. I was riding on my bike trainer at the time and I thought maybe I had misread the message. After my ride, I read it again and saw that the amount was correct, the upcharge was $2,000! PSA charges more to grade a card with a higher value, which is outlined in their pricing. For premium options, they charge $2,000 to grade a card that has a declared value of between $25,000 and $49,999.
PSA premium grading price scale |
PSA had graded the card as a GEM MINT 10, and they were estimating the value to be as much as $50,000. I nearly passed out. Not figuratively, but literally.
Here are the PSA grades and pop reports for Brady's cards in the 2002 Topps Chrome set.
Regular series
- Base card #100 - (718 graded, PSA 10 pop 154)
- Weekly wrap up card #150 - (68 graded, PSA 10 pop 41)
Insert cards
- Own the Game #OG7 - 1:8 packs (121 graded, PSA 10 pop 78)
- Ring of Honor #TB36 - 1:8 packs (68 graded, PSA 10 pop 41)
And appeared on these short-printed inserts or serial-numbered parallel cards
- Base card #100 black refractor - (77 graded, PSA 10 pop 13)
- Weekly wrap up #150 black refractor - (34 graded, PSA 10 pop 2)
- Super Bowl Goal Posts #SBG1 - 1:437 packs (16 graded, PSA 10 pop 2)
- Gridiron Badges Jerseys #GB-TB SN200 - 1:382 packs (14 graded, PSA 10 pop 0)
- Own the Game Refractor #OG7 SN100 (9 graded, PSA 10 pop 2)
- Ring of Honor Autograph #RHTBR (10 graded, PSA 10 pop 2)
- Ring of Honor Refractor #TB36 SN100 (11 graded, PSA 10 pop 1)
PSA Population Report as of January 18, 2022 |
While we are specifically looking at PSA grading, I have also researched BGS grading population reports as well. Of the 7 cards that have been submitted to BGS, none have ever been graded above a 9.0.
- It's Tom Brady. He is the GOAT and that is undeniable.
- With his retirement announcement, fans, collectors, and investors are all swarming to own any of his collectibles.
- It is from the 2002 Topps Chrome set, which was the first time he appear in Topps Chrome.
- The card was a limited issue, only 100 printed. How many more are sitting out there in GEM MINT 10 shape just waiting to be graded after 10 years? So it is a good bet that it may stay as pop 1 forever.
- The most recent sale of a grade 8 (shown below) was $6,055 as of late November. If a grade 9 is worth 1.5x-2x more than a grade 8, and a grade 10 is worth 5-10x more than the price of a grade 9, the card may be worth six figures, to the right buyer.
PSA most recent sale November 29, 2021 |