It turned out to be one of the most fortuitous ticket finds in collectible history.
A 50-year fan of the Oakland A's, who missed many games in 1989 as a partial season ticket holder, sold a lot of 13 full tickets from that season for a whopping $40,100 on eBay. The lot featured 113 bids.
His combined cost for the 13 field level tickets, 35 years ago?
$130!
The reason? One of the tickets, from Opening Day of that season, is the first full ticket from Ken Griffey Jr.'s debut that has ever been seen.
“I’m amazed at this unexpected bonus in life and at a very timely moment,” the A's fan told cllct about his new windfall. “I have been trying to complete a decade’s long personal photography project, and it looks like funding might have arrived.”
The man, who requested to remain anonymous, originally posted the 13 tickets without any description, but after getting offers of up to $7,000 for the lot on eBay, told cllct it was time to do some research.
Before posting the tickets, the man said he has cross-checked the dates with highlights from the A's 1989 season — but he hadn't looked closely at the visiting teams.
He had moved from Oakland to New Mexico in retirement and had gone back through his boxes where he had stored his tickets to "clean house" after relocating.
"I didn't think of money when I was saving them," said the man. "I kept them as souvenirs."
To date, PSA has graded 21 tickets to Junior's debut, but a full ticket had never surfaced before. The face value on the man's ticket was $10.
In the winter of 2022, the highest graded Griffey Jr. debut ticket at the time, graded a PSA 6, sold at Leland's for $43,550.40, which was the previous record. Since then, a signed ticket, graded PSA 7, also has surfaced.
But nothing like the full ticket this A's fan somehow saved for more than 35 years.
"Time to find new homes for many stored treasures," the man said. "I lucked out on this one!"
Darren Rovell is the founder of cllct.com and one of the country's leading reporters on the collectible market. He previously worked for ESPN, CNBC and The Action Network.