1869 Peck & Synder Card Hits $64,073

It didn't reach six figures, but the $64,073 winning bid wasn't bad for something that was originally listed on eBay for $10.

The famous 1869 Peck & Synder card of the Cincinnati Red Stockings find sold in the one-lot Memory Lane auction brought $75,286 with the buyer's premium, making it a pretty heady card to begin with.

Other examples of this card have not approached that level, usually sitting around $30,000 or less. But this card made the circuit on Yahoo! and The Tonight Show and will forever be attached to that celebrity.

On the last day of the auction, the 1869 card went from about $36,000 to a
hammer price of $64,073 ($75,286 including the 17-1/2 percent buyer’s premium).
“It was unbelievable,” said Dan Wulkan of Memory Lane. “That final price is about 150 percent or more than the highest price paid for one of these cards.”

The winning bidder was Jeff Rosenberg, president and CEO of Tristar Productions. “This card is at the top of all baseball cards,” said Rosenberg. “It’s a true piece of Americana and something we really wanted to own.”

TriStar, a multi-faceted sports memorabilia company, promotes hobby shows nationwide and packages pieces of memorabilia (cards, packs, autographs) in various ways – including its “Hidden Treasures” line. “This is the perfect piece for that (a Hidden Treasures promotion),” he said. “And down the road, who knows, we might just give the card away.”

Rosenberg said he plans to take the card on a tour of sports shows, including this year's National Sports Collectors Convention.

Bernice Gallego, who found the 1869 hidden treasure to start this whole story, said she and her husband partied as they watched the
auction on a big-screen TV at their friend’s home.

“We had balloons all over the house, a lot of food and friends, it was like New Year’s Eve,” she said. “I’m so delighted with the auction, it was a great finale.”