In a dusty attic in Defiance, Ohio, cousins Karl Kissner and a relative unsealed a cardboard box that would shock the sports memorabilia world. Inside lay 700 E98 baseball cards, including a perfect 10 Honus Wagner card, a 9‑graded Ty Cobb, and 16 other Hall of Famers, valued now at $3 million.
The E98 series, released around 1910, contains only 30 players, half of them Hall of Famers. The cards survived the years in surprisingly good condition, sparking a rapid appraisal by Heritage Auctions and PSA, who confirmed it as the best example of the set.
Kissner held the pile for two weeks before sending samples to Peter Calderon at Heritage Auctions. Calderon's excitement turned into a plan to sell the collection in staged auctions, a strategy designed to keep the market from flooding with hundreds of high‑value cards.
Heritage Auctions will roll out the cards over the next year, beginning with a high‑profile sale in August at the National Sports Collectors Convention in Baltimore. The proceeds will be divided evenly among the 20 cousins named in the will of their great‑aunt Jean Hench.