do you have a "strange inheritance" story you'd like to share with us? we'd love to hear it. send me an email or go to our website. "strangeit it right now. >> found in grandpa's attic. >> dirty, dusty old box. like, wow. i don't know what it is. >> a discovery that will make the baseball world flip. >> you've got honus wagner. cy young. christie matthew son. >> i'm thinking to myself, oh, my god. i have a million dollars sitting in a chair. >> but is it almost too much of a good thing? >> it certainly changes the market in a negative way. (?) ♪ jamie: i'm jamie colby. i'm in northwest ohio.

called the great black swamp. this is a family who has lived here for more than 100 years. when they unearth their "strange inheritance," they give it a code name: the "black swamp find." >> i'm karl kissner, in 2011, my cousins and i inherited the home from our aunts. we would find things in this home that we never knew existed. >> karl, a 54-year-old restaurant owner has invited me to the family home in the small town of defiance, ohio. karl, hi. i'm jamie. how are you? >> pleasure to meet you. jamie: nice to meet you too. is this the family home? >> this is grandma's home. come on in. i'll show you around. jamie: the house came into karl's family in 1949. >> needle place, but

needs tlc. >> are you saying to be careful? >> yes. jamie: karl and his cousin start the daunting task of cleaning out the home lived in for more than a century. after several weeks of sorting through the house, only the attic remains. karl and his cousin, carla decide to tackle the project. >> ladies first. >> oh, my. look at this place. jamie: the attic is empty now. but not that day in 2011. karl and carla walk in to find a century worth of dusty boxes and family heirlooms. >> literally filled to the rafters. >> all the way up to here and just a path down the middle. jamie: after several hours, they uncover a box hugging the back wall. it contains something the two cousins have never seen before. >> it was dirty, busty oldustyold box. i open it up.

i don't know what it is. >> the cousins see what appear to be small cardboard photos tightly wrapped in twine. they recognize some pretty familiar faces. >> we're looking at it. baseball players. cy young. tiger. they're not baseball cards. not to us. they look like baseball cards. miniaturized. no who made it. no nothing. >> how many we talking about? >> hundreds. jamie: amazing. you see the box. you take them out. what do you and carla say? >> actually we set them on a dresser in the hallway and dove into the attic. >> soon karl starts to ponder where the strange cards may have come from. where they something the aunt collected off a cereal box? or maybe they go back to his grandfather karl hench. >> he works his way through chicago. german immigrant. towards the ohio valley.

>> he's chasing the american dream, to own a home and start a business. karl is a butcher by trade. by 1905, scraped enough to open his own shop here in defiance. a meat market. he sells candies and other grocery items. >> was he successful? >> very successful as a butcher in town. >> in 1909, he marries his love jenny. they start a family and buy that dream home. by now, baseball has long established itself as the national past time. for decades, very companies have used baseball cards to sell their products. >> the first nationally circulated cards came in packages of tobacco. it was the opportunity for the average citizen to own a photo. >> candy companies jump into the game. caramel cart helped sell

the top people of the day. >> cy young. christie matthewson. >> children'children love the candy, but cards even more. >> children traded them. >> all karl and carla know is that the cards may have come from their grandfather's store. >> our guess is that he would have given them away as promotional items. when you have leftovers, you save them for the next promotion. >> beyond that, karl isn't sure what they have in the box. he tells his cousin, he'll 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 i'm going, okay, it's not identical.

but this is too close. they have an estimated value on this card of around 15,000. jamie: karl discovers that a similar ty cobb card recently sold for $40,000. >> and i got a box full of them and they're pristine. jamie: that's amazing. you're sitting on a bundle of money. >> yeah. at that point, the heart is starting to race. i'm thinking to myself, oh, my god. i have a million dollars sitting in a chair. >> a lot more than that, if that is, karl can confirm his cards are real. >> you're a little skeptical, you're looking forward to that one phone call that turns out to be gold. jamie: that's next. >> but first, our "strange inheritance" quiz question. which gets credit for setting off the rookie card craze? the 1968 nolan ryan.

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in the first place. to learn more or support the cause, go to huntsmancancer.org. >> so which helped set off the rookie card craze? it's c. he didn't have the hall of fame career some predicted. but the cards remained

popular. jamie: while the grandchildren of karl and jenny hench are cleaning out the century old family home in ohio, they find a dust covered box with what appear to be vintage baseball cards. >> i'm seeing a tod ty cobb for $40,000. i'm looking at mine and saying, mine is better. jamie: the box karl found not only contains cobb known as the georgia peach, but all the greats of the era. it's dozens. in all, 800 cards, most in pristine condition. >> it takes it off a scope and realm that you're not quite sure how to handle it. jamie: step one, find out if the cards are real. karl reaches out to vintage cards expert peter in dallas. >> i received a phone

call, which was very cryptic. he didn't want to go into any details. on a daily basis, we receive phone calls from people who find cars. it's always reprints. jamie: peter says to text photos of the cards and he'll take a look when he gets the chance. >> when i got the first picture, i thought these were too good to be true. they looked amazing. i saw nothing about them that looked like they weren't real. the next plan, we talked about him sending me a sample of the cards. >> karl overnights eight cards to peter with a note attached. call me before you open. when the box arrives at heritage auction -- >> i gave him a call. there's that moment of silence that feels like ten minutes, but it's a matter of seconds. i open the box. pull out a large plastic holder. then there's the holy

[bleep] >> i was just floored because i had no idea what a 100-year baseball card looked real. >> at that moment, i pretty much know, yeah, these are real. >> karl has one more bombshell. >> so his next question is: do you have anymore? >> yes. hundreds. >> i would have been happy if it was just the eight cards. that's when you realize, this is the find of a lifetime. ♪ jamie: karl dubs the cards the black swam"black swamp find." they're quickly shipped to dallas on an armored truck and locked in a vault. the next step is to get each card officially graded on a scale of one to ten. karl goes with professional sports authenticator. i meet up with joe

orlando, president of psa at the national sports collector convention for a crash course in grading baseball cards. why is this one only a one? babe ruth can't be just a one. >> if you look at the card, you can see all the defects. multiple creases throughout the card. this is about as low as it can get. >> this one is higher? this is eight? is that considered mint? >> almost mint. but you can see tiny white pieces of wear on each corner. that's the difference between an eight, nine or ten. jamie: those tiny imperfections can make a difference of thousands of dollars. >> this one is worth roughly $100 or so. if a nine, probably north of 1,000. if it's a ten, north of 5,000. jamie: so what about the "black swamp find"? do karl's cards make the grade. >> what was your reaction when you saw

the first card? >> it was mind-blowing. jamie: before the find, the highest it ever gave to a card was a seven. karl's cards beat that in their first. >> it was a ty cobb. little did we know there were 15 more ty cobb 9's and, of course, hundreds of high-grade eight, nines, and even tens in the set. >> sounds pretty good. right? not so fast. it doubles the population of this type of card and the unprecedented size and quality of the find could crash the baseball collector's market. will karl's 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. >> that's next. >> here's another quiz question for you. what's the most ever paid for a babe ruth

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now with live tv on the go. enjoy over wifi or on verizon wireless 4g lte. plus enjoy special savings when you purchase any new verizon wireless smartphone or tablet from comcast. visit comcast.com/wireless to learn more. ♪ >> so what's the most ever paid for a babe ruth baseball card? it's b. $517,000. for a 9014 baltimore news sold in 2008. (?) jamie: in 2012 in defiance, ohio, karl discovers 800 vintage cards in the attic of his old family home. most of the cards remain in near mint condition. which is rare among

cards even half that age. before the collecting craze in the 1980s, cards were simply fun things or to be used in flipping games. it will land either picture. you'll toss the card. if you match my card, you get to keep my card and your card. if you don't, i get to go home with your card. here goes. it's up. picture. i'm a winner. >> you're a winner. jamie: fortunately, for karl, his grandfather wasn't interested in such games, and the collection should easily be worth millions, if they play their cards right. you see, selling the so-called black swan find all at once could flood the market and drive prices down. >> because of the size of the collection and the quantity involved,

there was concern about the value. if there was one of each player, that would have been ideal. heritage auctions proposes a series of second sales to maximize the family's stake. >> to sell them by the set over a number of years. take our time. jamie: karl runs the estate on behalf of the 29 grandchildren. each family member can either join a consortium to sell the cards or keep their share as a family heirloom. >> did anybody keep the cards? yes, some of them did. >> most family members agreed to team and up sell the cards gradually. peter tal eastalliesy the numbers. nearly $3 million. for karl, it's a staggering sum. >> we're stunned. this is something we almost threw in a

dumpster. in baltimore camden park, they put the first 37 cards up for auction. >> they were the best of the best. the best graded cards out of everything we had graded. 1910e198010. 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 clean up hitter of the night, the only psa, ten mint, hall of famer, honus wagner in existence. 240,000 solid. anyone else? >> done. 240,00$240,000. >> we were flabbergasted. this is a wonderful gift from our grandfather and from our aunt. what more could you ask for? >> the family's total for the night: 566,000.

it's a very promising start. but they've also sold their best cards. does the black swan find have enough gas into it to get the gran

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>> now, back to "strange inheritance." jamie: karl kissner and his family are slowly selling off their "strange inheritance." 800 rare vintage baseball cards. the schekthe collection is valud around $3 million. the family still has plenty of high-grade hall of famers to sell. in october 2012 and may 2013, two online auctions with some help from legendary manager connie racked up

$419,000. in august 2013 in chicago, a psa minor brown pitches in to help the team ring in another 220k. in the big apple, february 2014, a psa, 8.5 johnny eve ever seen. johnny. two more online auctions raise the total to $1.7 million. jamie: on july 31st, 2014, i join karl and his cousin carla at the 35th national sports collectors convention in cleveland for their latest auction. >> got a fired up crowd here tonight. what do you think, karl? >> it's exciting watching everybody, and listening to the on floor bids. you get into the feel of it. the mood of it. >> the last person standing, get the item. >> apparently people

have money. at the end of tonight, you may too. jamie: up first for carla and karl tonight, the georgia peach. >> 730 ty cobb. mint nine. are you serious? yes, we are serious. 27,000. anybody else? >> when the auctioneer kind of slows down? you know it's getting -- it's getting good. >> yeah. >> sold at $28,000. >> congratulations, guys. give me five on that, yeah. jamie: now, stepping up to the plate, a psa9, honus wagner. >> come on, honus. >> sold at 33,000. the bidding ends at 33,750. >> yeah, very good. all right. jamie: their weekend earnings, including online sells, total

133,000, listing the "black swamp find" total to 1.85 million. [applauding] >> are you satisfied tonight? >> i'm estatic, the person that's buying it wants it and appreciates it. hhe will add it to his collection and maybe pass it on to his family. jamie: a box stored and forgotten in the attic for over a century, changes an industry forever along with the lives of the 20 hench grandchildren. so far the black swamp "black sp find" is like a slugger with -- well, on track to surpass the goal by peter. >> still ten more sets to sell. still averaging 10,000 a set. >> in the card collecting market, the game is not over until the last man is out. >> what would grandpa say? >> i think grandpa would be stunned, amazed, and pleased. i'm sure that he is.

i'm sure that the whole family is up there looking down with big smiles on their faces. jamie: was the "black swamp find" nearly history's most epic case of some guys mom throwing out his baseball card 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 jenny's cleaning purges. when she pitched boxes of junk right out the attic window, into a big mound below. thank goodness, she never got a hold of that one box in the corner. i'm jamie colby for "strange inheritance." thank you so much for joining us. remember, you can't take it with you. do you have a "strange

inheritance" story you'd like to share with us? we'd love to hear it. send me an email or go to our website, "strange coming up next. "strange >> have a great day. >> take÷qvq care. i'm chris wallace. islamic extremists continue their march in the middle east.÷ does the president have a real plan to beat @rf&xthem? actively name the movement as radical islam and we have no strategy to stop it or beat it. >> what is it we are out to accomplish? >> we discuss the strategy with three experts that have firsthand experience. senator kelly ayotte, four star general