Newburyport, Massachusetts, Man Catches a Cool $800K for Babe Ruth Card

Collecting stuff as a kid usually doesn't pay off.

I mean, remember Beanie Babies? In today's world they are not worth much.

And unless you have an original or early Barbie, in pristine condition (which means you didn't actually play with it), it may be well-loved but won't get you a monetary payoff.

What Do You Collect?

My daughter had a collection of Disney snow globes, but all the water evaporated, so they're worth nada.

Imagine if you did have a collection that was worth a good chunk of change.

A local broker fetched hundreds of thousands of dollars for his client recently.

Newburyport, Massachusetts, resident Jeff Gross brokered a deal that landed an anonymous Danvers man $813,000 for his Babe Ruth rookie card.

A Chance Meeting Nets Close to $1M

Here's the backstory.  This client has quite a few antique baseball cards, many from the  1916 Morehouse Baking Company.

According the The Salem News, the Lawrence, MA, baking company used to put baseball cards in its loaves to get kids to buy the bread.

It was a promotion, so any kid who collected all 50 cards could trade them in for a baseball and bat, says boston.com.

The Danvers man had a chance meeting with Mr. Gross at a garage sale, where he learned his collection could be quite valuable.  Indeed, as he collected almost $ 1 million for some of his many baseball cards and memorabilia.

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I am dreaming of that happening to my kid's collection of autographs from the 2004 Red Sox World Champions, but I think we will be long gone before anything like this happens.

What's in your attic?