This Woman's Baseball Card Collection Is Worth a Million Dollars

But don't get too excited thinking that the shoebox of collectables you left at your parents' house contains a small fortune. These aren't just any baseball cards.

In the 1870s, the great-great-grandmother of the woman who now owns these baseball cards ran a boarding house in Boston, where members the Boston Red Stockings—the National Association club that would eventually become the Atlanta Braves and some of the first ever professional ballplayers—often stayed. And so, along with the cards (which are some of the earliest known photographic baseball cards), the collection includes a handwritten letter with thanks and sentiments from many of the players—including Albert Spalding, the first well-known baseball player to use a glove and the founder of the Spalding sports equipment company.

Taken altogether, the collection—which Antiques Roadshow's appraisals expert calls "the greatest archive [she's] ever had at the Roadshow"—is valued at one million dollars, at least.

Holy smokes, indeed.