Im here to meet a family whos lived here for more than a 100 years. So when they unearthed their strange inheritance, they give it the code name the black swamp find. Im karl kissner. In 2011, my cousins and i inherited the family home from our aunt. She had left us a note we would find things in this home that we never knew existed. Karl, a 54yearold restaurant owner, has invited me to the family home in the small town of defiance, ohio. Karl . Hi. Im jamie. How are you . Very good. Pleasure to meet you. Nice to meet you, too. Thanks for having me. Is this the family home . This is grandmas home. Come on in. Ill show you around. The house first came into karls family in 1909. Neat old place, but needs a little tlc. Are you saying be careful . Yes. Okay. In 2012, karl and his cousins start the daunting task of cleaning out a home thats been lived in for more than a century. After several weeks of sorting through the house, only the attic remains. Karl and his cousin, karla, decide to tackle the project. Ladies first. Oh, my look at this place. The attic is empty now, but not that day in 2012. Karl and karla walk in to find a centurys worth of dusty boxes and family heirlooms. And literally filled to the rafters. Filled to the rafters, all the way up to about here and just a path down through the middle. After several hours, they uncover a box hugging the back wall. It contains something the two cousins have never seen before. It was a dirty, dusty old box, and i opened it up. And then its like, wow. Theres i dont know what it is. The cousins see what appear to be small cardboard photos tightly wrapped in twine. They recognize some pretty familiar faces. Were both looking at it. Its Baseball Players cy young, ty cobb, wagner but theyre not Baseball Cards, not to us. We get one out and we look at the back, and they look like Baseball Cards, just miniaturized, no stats, no who made it, no nothing. How many are we talking about . Hundreds. [ laughs ] amazing. So, you see the box. You take them out. What do you and karla say . Actually, we set them on a dresser in the hallway and dove back into the attic but soon, karl starts to ponder where the strange cards may have come from. Were they something aunt jean collected off a cereal box . Or maybe they go all the way back to his grandfather, carl hench. Hes a german immigrant and he works his way down through chicago and towards the ohio valley. Hes chasing the American Dream to own a home and start a business. Carls a butcher by trade, and by 1905, hes scraped together enough to open his own shop here in defiance the carl hench meat market. Along with meats and sausages, he sells candies and other grocery items. Was he successful in his shop . Very successful as a butcher in town, very wellknown. In 1909, he marries his love, jennie. They start a family and buy that dream home. By now, baseball has long established itself as the national pastime, and for decades, various companies have used Baseball Cards to sell their products. The first nationally circulated cards came inside packages of tobacco in the late 1880s and was actually one of the first opportunities for the average citizen to own a real photo. Candy Companies Jump into the game, too. The socalled caramel cards help sell the sweets and the top players of the day. Youve got honus wagner ty cobb, cy young, christy mathewson. Children love the candy, but the cards even more. Kids did what kids do. They played with them. They traded them. Theres cardflipping games that they did with them. All karl and karla know at this point is that the cards may have come from their grandfathers store. Our guess is that he would have given them away as promotional items, and like any good businessman, when you got leftovers, you save them for the next promotion. Beyond that, karl isnt sure what they have in the box, but he tells his cousin hell find out. The box sits on that dresser for a few days and almost gets thrown out several times before karl brings it to his restaurant to research the cards online. After a few days, he has some leads. I was looking at a 1909 caramel card and im going, okay, its not identical, but this is too close, and theyve got an estimated value on this card of . Around 15,000. Karl discovers that a similar ty cobb card, identified as a 1910 caramel card, recently sold for 40,000. And i got a box full of them, and theyre pristine. Thats amazing. Youre sitting on a bundle of money. Yeah. At that point the, the heart is starting to race, and im thinking to myself, oh, my god. I have 1 million sitting in a chair. A lot more than that. If, that is, karl can confirm his cards are real. Youre a little skeptical, but youre always looking forward to that one phone call that turns out to be gold. Thats next. But first, our strange inheritance quiz question. The answer when we return. Hows it going . Hi. Today were gonna be comparing the rollformed steel bed of the Chevy Silverado to the aluminum bed of this competitors truck. Awesome. Lets see how the aluminum bed of this truck held up. Wooooow holy moly. Thats a good size puncture. You hear aluminum now youre gonna go ew. Lets check out the silverado steel bed. Wow. You have a couple of dents. Id expect more dents. Make a strong decision. Find your tag and get 15 below msrp on select 2017 silverado 1500 crew cabs in stock. Find new roads at your local chevy dealer. Its c, the 1984 donruss don mattingly. He didnt have the hall of fame career some predicted, but mattinglys cards remain popular. While the grandchildren of carl and jennie hench are cleaning out the centuryold family home in northwest ohio, they find a dustcovered box containing what appear to be vintage Baseball Cards. I had went to some of the auction sites. Im seeing a ty cobb for 40,000. And im looking at the ty cobb that i have, going, ooh mines better. The box karl found in the attic not only contains cobb, but all the greats of the era. And its not just one of each player its dozens. In all there, are 800 cards, most in pristine condition. It kind takes it out of a scope and a realm that you just youre not quite sure how to handle it. Step one find out if the cards are real. Karl reaches out to vintagesportscards expert Peter Calderon in dallas. I received a phone call, which was very cryptic. He didnt want to go into any details. On a daily basis, we receive phone calls from people who find cards. Its always reprints. Peter tells karl to text some photos of the cards, and hell take a look when he gets a chance. When i got that first picture, the first thing i thought of, this is gonna be filed in a toogoodtobetrue folder, but they looked amazing, and i saw nothing about them that suggested they werent real. So, i definitely the next plan was we talked about him sending me some sample of the cards. Karl overnights eight cards to peter, with a note attached, saying, call me before you open. When the box arrives at heritage auctions in dallas. I gave him a call, had him on the phone. And theres that moment of silence that feels like 10 minutes, but its actually a matter of seconds. I opened up the box and i pulled out a large plastic holder. And then theres the, oh [bleep] i was just floored, because i had no idea what a 100yearold Baseball Card looked like brandnew. Well, at that moment, i pretty much know that, yeah, these are real. Karl has one more bombshell. So, his next question is, do you have any more . Yes. Hundreds. I would have been happy if it was just the eight cards. There was when you realized, this is the find of a lifetime. Karl dubs the cards the black swamp find, after the nickname for this section of northwest ohio. Theyre quickly shipped to dallas on an armored truck and locked in the safety of a vault. The next step is to get each card officially graded on a scale of 1 to 10. Karl goes with professional sports authenticator. I meet up with joe orlando, president of psa, at the National SportsCollectors Convention for a crash course in grading Baseball Cards. Why is this one only a 1 . Babe ruth cannot be just a 1. So, if you look at the card, you can see all of the defects. Theres surface wear, multiple creases throughout the card. This is about as low as it can get. So, this one is higher. This is 8. Is that considered mint . This is considered almost mint. But when you look really, really close, you can see very little, tiny white pieces of wear on each corner. And thats the difference between an 8, a 9, or a 10. Those tiny imperfections can make a difference of thousands of dollars. If this is a psa 8, its worth roughly, you know, 100 or so. If it were a 9, its worth probably, you know, north of 1,000. And if its a 10, its worth north of 5,000. So, what about the black swamp find . Do karls cards make the grade . What was your reaction when you saw the first cards . It was just it was mindblowing. Before the black swamp find, the highest grade psa ever gave to a card in that series was a 7. Karls cards beat that in their first atbat. It was a ty cobb and it graded a psa mint 9. Little did we know that there were 15 more ty cobb 9s and, of course, hundreds of highgrade 8s, 9s, and even 10s in the set. Sounds pretty good, right . Not so fast. The collection doubles the known population of this type of card, and the unprecedented size and quality of the find could crash the baseballcardcollectors market. Will karls inheritance end up being too much of a good thing . If you were to flood the market with all of this at one time, it would certainly diminish the value of the entire find. Thats next. Heres another quiz question for you. The answer in a moment. Dear predictable, theres no other way to say this. Its over. Ive found a permanent escape from monotony. Together, we are perfectly balanced, our senses awake, our hearts racing as one. I know this is sudden, but they say if you love something. Set it free. See you around, giulia i just had to push one button wto join. S thing is crazy. Its like im in the office with you, even though im here. Its almost like the Virtual Reality of business communications. No, its reality. Introducing intuitive, one touch video calling from vonage. Call now and get amazon chime at no additional cost. Its b, 517,000 for a 1914 baltimore news ruth rookie card, sold in 2008. In 2012, in defiance, ohio, karl kissner discovers 800 vintage Baseball Cards in the attic of his old family home. Most of the centuryold cards remain in nearmint condition, which is rare among cards even half their age. Before the collecting craze in the 1980s, cards were simply fun toys to be used in bikewheel spokes or flipping games, like this one. So, im gonna toss a card, and itll land either picture or stats. Youre gonna toss a card. If you match my card, you get to keep my card and your card. If you dont, i get to go home with your cards. Okay, lets do this. All right . Here it goes. Stats. Stats up. Picture. Im a winner. Youre a winner. Fortunately for karl, his grandfather wasnt interested in such games, and the collection should easily be worth millions. If they play their cards right. You see, selling the socalled black swamp find all at once could flood the market and severely drive prices down. Because of the size of the collection and the quantity involved, there was a lot of concern about the value. If there was one of each player, that would have been ideal. So heritage auctions proposes a series of separate sales to maximize the familys take. We decided the best way to do it is to take your time, sell them by the set over a number of years. Karl runs the estate on behalf of the 20 grandchildren and divides the cards up into equal sets. Each Family Member can either join a consortium to sell the cards or keep his share as a family heirloom. Did anyone keep the cards . Yes, yes. Really . Some of them did. But most Family Members agree to team up and sell the cards gradually. Peter calderon tallies the numbers and comes up with what karl might expect, if all goes right nearly 3 million. For karl, its a staggering sum. Were stunned. This is something we almost threw in a dumpster. In august 2012, in baltimores camden yards ballpark, they put the first 37 cards up for auction. They were the best of the best. They were the bestgraded cards out of all of them that we had graded. Ladies and gentlemen, lets do lot 001. Its the 1910 e98. In bidding thats fast and furious, the family sees one lot of nine cards go for 40,000, a second lot of 27 cards goes for 286,000, but the real cleanup hitter of the night, the only psa gemmint10graded card of hall of Famer Honus Wagner in existence. Auctioneer 240,000 solid. I have the cut bid. Anyone else . Done 240,000 were flabbergasted. This is a wonderful gift from our grandfather and from our aunt. What more can you ask for . The familys total for the night . Its a very promising start, but theyve also sold their best cards. Does the black swamp find still have enough gas in it to get the hench grandchildren to their 3 million goal . Thats next. Now back to strange inheritance. Karl kissner and his family are slowly selling off their strange inheritance 800 rare vintage Baseball Cards. The collection is valued at around 3 million. An initial auction of their best cards has already brought in 566,000, and the family still has plenty of highgrade hall of famers to sell. In october 2012 and may 2013, two online auctions with some help from legendary manager connie mack rack up 419,000. Then, in august 2013, in chicago, a psa 8 miner brown pitches in to help the team ring up another 228k. And in the big apple, in february 2014, a psa 8. 5 johnny evers and mint 9 frank chance assist in a 300,000 haul. Two more online auctions raise the total to 1. 7 million. On july 31, 2014, i join karl and his cousin karla at the 35th National SportsCollectors Convention in cleveland for their latest auction. Weve got a firedup crowd here tonight. What do you think, karl . Its exciting watching everybody and listening to the onfloor bids. You just you get into the feel of it, the mood of it. Bid what you want. The last person standing with their hand in the air gets the item. Apparently, people have money. Apparently. [ both laugh ] and at the end of tonight, you may, too. Up first for karl and karla tonight, the georgia peach. This is a 1910 e98 set of 30 ty cobb, black swamp find, psa mint 9. Are you serious . Yes, we are serious. 26,000. Whos bidding 28 grand . 27,000 heritage live. 28,300. Fair warning, anybody else. When the auctioneer kind of slows down like that, you know its getting good. Yeah. Sold at at 28,000. Congratulations, guys. Thats awesome give me five on that. Yeah now stepping up to the plate, a psa mint 9 honus wagner. Go, honus. Yay come on. Yeah, come on, honus, baby. 32 1 2 on heritage live. Another bidder just jumped on. Lets sell this thing. 33,000. The bidding ends at 33,750. Yeah very good all right their weekend earnings, including online sales, total 133,000, lifting the black swamp find total to 1. 85 million. [ cheers and applause ] are you satisfied tonight . Im ecstatic. And you know the person thats buying it wants it and appreciates it, and hes gonna add it to his collection. And maybe hell pass it on to his family. A box stored and forgotten in the attic for over a century eventually changes a collectibles industry forever, along with the lives of the 20 hench grandchildren. So far, the black swamp find is like a slugger with 40 home runs at the allstar break well on track to surpass the goal set by Peter Calderon. Theres still 10 more sets to sell, and wer almost 200,000 a set. And in the cardcollecting market, the games never over till the last man is out. What would grandpa say . I think grandpa would be stunned, amazed, and pleased. Im sure that he is, cause im sure that the whole family is up there looking down with big smiles on their faces. Was the black swamp find nearly historys most epic case of some guys mom throwing out his baseballcard collection . Karl thinks so. When he made his big discovery in the attic, he spied several wrinkled and grimy cards strewn among the rafters and the floorboards. Karl believes that they went flying during one of his grandma jennies cleaning purges, when shed pitch boxes of junk right out the attic window into a big mound below. Thank goodness she never got hold of that one box in the corner. Im jamie colby for strange inheritance. Thank you so much for joining us. And remember, you cant take it with you. Do you have a strange inheritance story youd like to share with us . Wed love to hear it. Send me an email, or go to our website, strangeinheritance. Com. Announcer a veteran of the battle of the bulge squirrels away enough old military gear to supply a platoon. It was in boxes, gun cabinets, closets. They couldnt even get access to their master bathroom, it was so clogged with stuff. It was one of those finds you get once in a lifetime. Announcer uniforms, weapons, plus plenty of surprises. This is worth 50,000 . does it work . Announcer and whats up with this bulletriddled log . It was usually wrapped in a blanket in a bathtub. In a bathtub . In a bathtub. [ door creaks ] [ wind howls ] [ thunder rumbles ] [ bird caws ]