The Lucky 7 Find sells for around $3 million

All seven Ty Cobb baseball cards from The Lucky 7 Find – one of the greatest sports card discoveries of all-time – have been sold, realizing approximately $3 million.

The T206 White Border Ty Cobb red background portrait with the “Ty Cobb Tobacco” back, with only 22 known examples, is by far the rarest of the set’s various tobacco brand backs.

In February 2016, Rick Snyder, owner of MINT State, a PSA Authorized Dealer specializing in rare, high-grade sports cards, had been contacted by a family going through their great-grandparents’ old, dilapidated house in a rural southern town. Seven Ty Cobb baseball cards were found on the floor, face down at the bottom of a torn paper bag. All seven cards featured a reverse design, commonly referred to as the Ty Cobb back, which proclaimed Cobb to be the “King of the Smoking Tobacco World.”

“We were hired by the family to have the cards graded by Professional Sports Authenticator and to sell them using our direct sales method, maximizing the prices realized for each of the seven cards in the find,” Snyder said. “While confidentiality prevents us from reporting individual sale prices, the seven cards – which ranged in grade from FR 1.5 to VG-EX+ 4.5 – sold for a staggering total of approximately three million dollars.”

The PSA assigned grades include: FR 1.5 (one card), Good+ 2.5 (four cards), VG+ 3.5 (one card), and VG-EX+ 4.5 (one card). The PSA 3.5 and 4.5 represent the two highest graded examples of the rare and valuable T206 Ty Cobb with Ty Cobb back.

The Lucky 7 Find received national media coverage in March 2016 when news of the find was made public, and confirmed treasures are still out there waiting to be discovered. Not only did The Lucky 7 Find benefit the entire hobby due to the overwhelming publicity, it was the equivalent of a winning lottery ticket for a typical American family.