Topps, the sports card manufacturer, wanted to try something a little different with their latest product, the 2007 Allen & Ginter Baseball set. Named after the former tobacco company that introduced the concept of baseball cards to the world in 1887, this year's Allen & Ginter set features unique artwork of today's baseball stars instead of the standard posed photographs. In addition to featuring baseball players, the set also includes sporting legends from other sports, such as Mike Tyson, Carl Lewis, John Wooden -- even the famed hot dog eater Takeru Kobayashi. But what really sets this set apart is that it also includes some non-sports items, as this story from Beckett.com explains:
Chad Smith, of Wolverine Sportscards in Westchester, Ohio, bought a case of Allen & Ginter from Dave & Adam's Card World on the [National Sports Collectors Convention] show floor. Like many dealers, Smith lugged the case back to his hotel room to bust, with the intent of selling its key singles the next day.How big? He's already turned down an offer of $20,000 in hopes of making more money on eBay -- the auction goes for another week and is already up to $6,000 after 20 bids. I'm sure somewhere up there Mother Teresa is smiling down at him: if there's one thing she stood for, it's unbridled capitalism.
Halfway through the case, she appeared. The 1/1 Mother Teresa cut autograph.
"We had been busting for a few hours, and about to quit at 3:00 a.m. (EST) when I saw it," Smith said. "I started shaking. I didn't say anything, but my buddy knew I hit something big.
(via Can't Stop the Bleeding, BBTF)
