By Amar Shah
Charles Foster Kane had his rosebud, and Marcel Proust had his madeleine. Glenn Hirsch's father had his cards. And then, he didn't.
It's a story we know all too well: “My mom threw everything out.”
In this case, it was true.
“That's what happened,” Glenn says about his dad, Mike. “He wanted to recoup those losses.”
And boy, did he.
Glenn's father would take the train to the Bronx as a kid. He was a Brooklyn Dodgers fan.
“He would go scavenger hunting for cards and card shops with his friends and just make a game out of it looking for these places,” Glenn said.
But after losing his beloved collection, getting married, and having kids, his dad didn't lose his zeal for collecting. In fact, it burned inside him.
“I think he wanted to relive his childhood in a way by starting again and finding these gems,” Glenn said.
Numerous T206s, many of which are signed, are available in Hirsch's expansive collection
His dad’s day job was working at AT&T, but his passion was going to flea markets, card shows, garage sales, and private sales, where he would buy collections.
“He would advertise in Sports Collectors Digest, not only selling but buying,” Glenn said. “And that's where we got a decent amount of it, from people just unloading their collections. That's how our collection kept growing and growing.”
That collection was passed on to Glenn.
“I'm a collector but I collect baseball, basketball, and a little hockey. I'm not really into vintage cards. But once I saw them, my jaw dropped,” Glenn recalls. “I'm like, ‘Holy cow!’”
One of those cards was a signed 1951 Bowman #253 Mickey Mantle Rookie PSA GOOD 2 with a MINT 9 signature. Glenn recalls a time when a guy offered $40,000.
“He was like, ‘Oh, don't get it graded.’ I got on the phone with him and said, ‘Um, we're going in another direction.’ We're getting that card graded.”
That's when Glenn started working with REA, where the newly-discovered signed Mantle rookie ultimately sold for $204,000 as part of the company’s Spring Catalog Auction in April. In fact, two other newly discovered items from Glenn’s father’s collection were among the notable sales in REA’s Spring event: a 1909-1911 T206 White Border Ty Cobb Portrait Red Background PSA GOOD+ 2.5 with a Broad Leaf 350 Back - the only known example - which sold for $270,000, and a 1915 Boston Red Sox Real-Photo Team Postcard with Babe Ruth Rookie that sold for $75,000.
A signed 1949 Bowman Duke Snider rookie is one of the highlights of Hirsch's collection available in REA's Summer Auction
While the collection is massive and loaded with prestige, one of its defining elements is the volume of signed cards. In a time where on-card signatures were thought to be somewhat taboo, the collection includes thousands of signed examples representing dozens of different sets from T206 through the 1950s, including hundreds of 1951 Bowmans, 1952 Topps, 1933 and 1934 Goudeys, and all three Play Ball sets from 1939 to 1941.
Some of these signed relics ran in REA’s June Encore Auction, including signed 1949 Bowmans of Bob Feller and Enos Slaughter and signed 1950 Bowmans of Larry Doby and Warren Spahn.
Much of the remainder of the collection is available for bidding in REA’s Summer Catalog Auction, which runs from July 23 through August 11. There’s a definite focus on quality as countless signatures have been graded eight or above by PSA/DNA and range from a 1949 Bowman #226 Duke Snider Rookie PSA VG-EX 4 with a GEM MINT 10 signature and a 1934 R320 Goudey #62 Hank Greenberg Rookie PSA GOOD 2 with a MINT 9 signature to an extremely rare 1940 R335 Play Ball #168 Honus Wagner PSA VG 3 with a MINT 9 signature.
For set-building enthusiasts, near-complete Bowman sets from 1948 to 1952 along with 1955 are available for bidding, each of which includes dozens of signed cards. If you’re looking to take a step further back into history, there’s also a collection of 1911 T205 Gold Borders as well as a near-complete 1909-1911 T206 White Border set broken down into a number of different lots.
Hirsch's collection also includes this signed 1940 Play Ball Honus Wagner
Aside from the signature component of the incredible Hirsch collection, one of the most notable parts was its extensive vintage baseball postcard focus. There's a 1907 PC765 A.C. Dietsche Detroit Tigers postcard of rookie Ty Cobb batting and a 1907 Wolverine News rookie postcard of Ty Cobb, both of which are newly discovered, along with a rare sepia postcard of Honus Wagner graded SGC 1.5.
Finally, an extremely rare and newly discovered 1911 Monarch Typewriter SGC-graded complete set of six cards that includes Hall of Famers Chief Bender, Eddie Collins, and Eddie Plank is up for sale.
It's an immaculate collection, a childhood recovered, and a little more valuable than a sled or cookie, for sure.
“He knew his stuff,” Glenn says.
Indeed, he did.
Amar Shah is a multiple Emmy-winning writer and producer who has written for ESPN.com, NFL.com, The Wall Street Journal, The Orlando Sentinel, Sports Illustrated for Kids, Slam Magazine and The Washington Post. In the 90s, Amar was a teen sports reporter and got to hang out with the Chicago Bulls during their golden era. He even landed on the cover for Sports Illustrated for Kids with Shaquille O’Neal. His debut novel "The Hoop Con" is now available with Scholastic. You can order it here: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-hoop-con-amar-shah/1143287376?ean=9781338840315