13 Year Old Boy Hits the Lottery!

Being a man of a certain age, there are things in life that take you back, especially to summers as a kid. Baseball games on the radio, fireflies, the smell of fried chicken, baseball cards, shooting hoops with your buddies.

Baseball cards particularly come to mind for me. Every Easter my mom would get me an unopened box of wax pack Topps cards in lieu of an Easter basket. I would subsequently spend the next couple of weeks chewing baseball card bubble gum and daring tooth decay to even try. I literally, in my mind’s eye still can smell and taste the gum, and the residue it would leave on the cards.

I spent a number of years, until my young adulthood as an avid collector. Topps, Fleer, and Donruss were the big three in baseball. I likely still have 20 thousand plus cards, many in protective plastic.

“He won the lottery.”@MollyWaIsh has the story on how a 13-year-old struck gold with a 1-of-1 Mac Jones card.https://t.co/pvPB8M8Iof

— USA TODAY Sports+ (@USATSportsPlus) June 8, 2022

I quit collecting in my early 20’s as life, a wife, kids, and other things started demanding my money. Did I mention a wife? I digress. Cards were getting expensive, and numerous new brands were watering down the market, which subsequently caused the market to bottom out, with all but a handful of cards losing their value.

So much for my retirement plans! Well kids, guess what’s back? Sports cards are back in a big way, and people are cashing in!

What are the details? Per Fox8.com:

It was truly a needle in a haystack. What are the chances out of thousands of football cards that one kid in Cuyahoga Falls would buy just three boxes and find the one card that makes the angels sing?

On live video, he found an ultra-rare card of New England Patriots Quarterback Mac Jones, Rookie card one of one, and even though he has completely lost his mind at this point, Johnny Stone is a true collector and remembered to put the card in two protective sleeves immediately.

After all, it’s not every day you get $100,000 in your hands.

Wow. That’s beyond insane. I know not all readers follow sports ball, so I’ll break this down for you. Mac Jones was a rookie for the Patriots last year. He was JUST OK. Nothing special. Not terrible, but no one with a functioning brain thinks Jones is the next Tom Brady. So why the hyper-inflated value?

“The rarity and the player, there’s only one of them in the world and the player had the best stats for a rookie quarterback and his cards are worth the most right now.” Stone said.

The best stats is generous. I understand the rarity aspect, but if you have a rock that looks like a dog turd, it’s probably the only one in the world. It’s not valuable. It’s still a rock.

Basically I’m saying Mac Jones is a dog turd. A 100k dog turd. Woof.

Johnny and his dad Chad run Stones Sports Cards and Collectables as an eBay shop together and usually open boxes together, but this time he was on the road.

Of course she did! Someone has to be no fun! This kid should’ve been the only 13 year old on the block with a Corvette.

I’m interested to see what happens to the value when the novelty and craze wears off. I witnessed it before, firsthand, I suspect it will happen again.

Until then, I guess I’ll be down at the local card shop waiting to cash in.