Tabi Walters

Joe Tee founded Throwback Sports Cards five years ago, tapping into a nascent recovery in the sports card business. As a lifelong collector, he cherishes the cards, yes, but also the stories behind the collections.

“It is really exciting to be able to talk with people who originally pulled these cards from packs, and hear about which convenience store they purchased them from and what the gum tasted like,” he says.

Tee recalls picking up one of his dream acquisitions in Ann Arbor last year: a 1933 Goudey Gum Company set, containing four Babe Ruths and two Lou Gehrigs, that he calls “a top three set of all time.” 

Goudey Gum, a company out of Boston, pioneered the addition of baseball cards to chewing gum packages with its Big League Chewing Gum, following the lead of the tobacco companies. From 1933 to 1941, Goudey produced fifteen sets of cards under that brand. The 1933 set is the most famous.

“The grandfather of the set’s previous owner grew up in Maryland in the early 1900s and acquired all the cards during that time,” Tee says. “They had been in his family ever since. During the 1970s, he discovered his father’s Goudey collection and decided to complete the set.”

At first, the owner was hesitant to sell, but Tee says he kept checking in and “finally about six months later he reached out saying it was time to let them go.”

Stadium Cards & Comics owner Mark Fenwick says they recently acquired a “very, very, very rare” 1977 Reggie Jackson card, which features the famous Yankee in a Baltimore Orioles jersey. Jackson didn’t play for the Orioles that season, and Topps changed the proof after he signed as a free agent with the Yankees. One of these cards sold for $60,000 in 2016. 

Each such transaction helps feed the rebound in the sports card market, which had been contracting for decades. Morgan Stanley values the collectibles market, which includes sports cards, at $100 billion, and forecasts 6 percent annual increases through 2027.

Several U-M cards stand out on eBay. At press time, a set of twenty Michigan Wolverines Letterman trading cards with autographs from eighteen top U-M athletes was being offered for $17,500. A 2023 Rookie Patch trading card of Jake Moody was listed at $9,000.