Craziest thing you ever discovered on a card
 

Inspired by the Leaf variation thread, but it doesn't have to be something important to the hobby like that may turn out to be.

Mine is merely a bit of trivia. Reggie Smith (a HIGHLY underrated player) has a 1967 Topps Rookie card. It is #314. How many home runs you think Reggie hit in his career? If you guessed 314 you'd be right. I actually discovered that little tidbit on my own and I love sharing it. Can't imagine there's any other player that this can be said about.

116 year old tobacco scraps on a Polar Bear Chief Bender

I would be astonished if he was the only one. Basically everyone whose rookie card is a Topps issue has a number in the 1-792 range, and everyone in the history of MLB has a career total somewhere in the 0-762 range. That's thousands of different players. I'm guessing there are at least a dozen other matches.

yeah but the synching up of those two numbers is pretty amazingly coincidental. Sticking with your Topps theory, it was fairly rare to have a rookie in the first 100 cards, yet the VAST majority of players who play in the majors hit under 100 HR's (looked it up only 857 hit 100 or more out of almost 20,000 players) Once you get over #200 you're down to only 336 players #300 and your chances dip to only 141 players so really your odds for matching are much worse when you look into it a little more deeply.

I'll put my money where my mouth is. If you can find 5 Topps rookies before 1993 whose rookie card # matches their career HR total I'll pay $50. You said you guess a dozen, so 5 should be easy. Open to anyone who'd like to play.

Besides Reggie Smith of course.

I agree, I also really doubt there is more than a couple besides Reggie Smith.

Back on topic. I was given some 60's cards in a box that included some mice turds and stunk of mouse urine. Weirdly not a single card was chewed on. After a bath the smell was gone thankfully.

For me it would probably be finding the only known Tango Eggs card with a ghost image.

A little bit of a stretch but when my now wife and I were dating as part of a birthday present to me for my 33rd birthday she gave me $33 in PayPal to buy something fun for my collection. After searching for a while I found a low grade card that I always wanted. A 1953 Bowman Pee Wee Reese. Amazingly I won it for $33 with free shipping. It was only after I received the card that I realized the card number in the set is also 33.
Drew

Cool story Drew. I hope you still have the card.

wow a 53 Bowman Reese for $33 is pretty awesome regardless of condition. My all-time favorite card. There's also a good chance he's 33 years old in the image too.

Ryne Sandberg, Robin Yount, Andy Pafko, Joe Torre, Minnie Minoso and Dave Winfield are close but I wouldn't know any others that are an exact match.

had a little free time at work today?

You need to realize that Drew (Hi Drew), being born in 1920, was already 33 years of age when he bought the card in 1953. He's 96 now. Paypal or not, this is a true anachronistic phenomenon eek::D

Ironic considering today is my actual birthday. Not sure what that makes me with your figures. (Actually 45 today). And yes, I still own that card. First one of many that my amazing wife is responsible for.

Drew

scrap tobacco over the "S" in St. L
 

it would likely not get a number grade since it so well matches the brown that they think it is covering up paper loss.

The Buckner tribute card. :D

http://img.beckett.com/images/items_...7080/front.jpg

Not a Tribute...
 

but, eerily accurate in predicting the future?

Attachment 251419

Guess what year Mickey Mantle batted 311?
http://www.baseball-reference.com/pl...antlmi01.shtml

http://www.ballerstatus.com/2016/11/...ops-1-million/