The collector was just 14 years old when he found a handful of striking 3×4 baseball cards tucked in the back of an old photo album. Those oversized sepia cards kicked off a 44-year treasure hunt for the “Miracle Set:” an ultra-rare baseball card set expected to shatter sports memorabilia records when its NFT experience launches on May 5.
“Imagine a baseball card set that is 90 years old yet was unknown to the collecting public until the 1960s. Imagine a set that contains Ty Cobb, Walter Johnson and Christy Mathewson as three of the most desirable keys, yet every other issue in the set is a virtual equal in the rarity department. [That’s] the 1912 Plow’s Candy Baseball Cards set,” said top industry authenticator PSA, which graded every card in the “Miracle Set.”
The Plow’s Candy Collection baseball cards were the first set produced by a confectionary company in the Midwest. Their oversized format and unique designs made them both expensive to produce—$10 each by today’s standards—and cherished by the Chicagoans and St. Louis residents who received these heirlooms with gourmet chocolate deliveries between 1913 and 1915.
Of the scarce 180 individual cards discovered to date, only 69 unique player cards have ever been documented. This “Miracle Set” includes 61 of those individual player cards. But in a set with a deep bench of stars—17 Hall of Famers, including four of the original five inductees—one card is undoubtedly the crown jewel in the treasure trove. PSA has rated the only existing Honus Wagner as a 7 in “near mint condition.”
The “Miracle Set” has been called the world’s rarest baseball card set based on its pure scarcity, extraordinary design and historical legacy. However, the combined value of the physical cards, NFT rights, multimedia, and experiential elements could give it another title when it goes up for sale on May 5: the world’s most valuable baseball card collection.
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