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Former major leaguer Dmitri Young is unlikely owner of huge rookie baseball card collection - Yahoo! Sports Canada
One of the nation's foremost baseball-card collectors, a self-described nerd who spent the last 13 years accumulating about 500 unblemished rookie cards of Hall of Famers, iconic achievers and interesting characters. It's obvious this is no meek, reclusive hobbyist. The man possessing the only known perfect-condition rookie cards of Roberto Clemente, Stan Musial, Pete Rose, Reggie Jackson and many other luminaries.
Young rattles off names. He has one of only two 1954 Hank Aaron cards rated as a Gem Mint 10 by the Professional Sports Authenticators (PSA), an independent third-party memorabilia grading company.
"Young's zealousness has gotten the best of him at times. He admits to overpaying for the only Ernie Banks Gem Mint 10. In fact, he overpaid for plenty of cards when he started collecting in 2000. Young fell into the hobby while playing for the Cincinnati Reds. He and pitcher Danny Graves were each promised $2,000 to appear at a card show, and Young became intrigued by the wares. He saw a Pete Rose rookie card and asked the proprietor if he could have it in lieu of payment.
"I knew nothing about graded cards, so when he gave me a PSA 8 Pete Rose, I said, 'Why is it in a case?' " Young says. "The guy explained what PSA was. It got me curious, and throughout the year I'd go online and see what was going on. That offseason my wife told me I needed a hobby. I was sitting around doing absolutely nothing, letting old wounds heal. So I started buying PSA 8s. Rookies, of course. Then I started buying the 9s, then people started offering me 10s online. The next thing you know, the collection started."
The Reds traded Young to the Detroit Tigers before the 2002 season, and to commemorate the deal he bought an Al Kaline 1954 rookie card rated by PSA as a 10.
They landed the Clemente card for $150,000, a little more than half the initial asking price. Reggie Jackson's PSA 10 was a coup. So was Roy Campanella's. Young spent tens of thousands on full sets of cards just to find a single hot rookie.
"For instance, I bought cases of the 1982 Topps set – Lee Smith's rookie year," Young says. "I'd go through them and pick out the Lee Smith cards. While I'm in there, I'd also set aside the Cal Ripkens and the Kent Hrbecks. I easily recouped what I spent because I had maybe 10 Cal Ripken cards, and at that time they were going for $1,000 each. Plus, I got the Lee Smiths."
Card values took a nosedive in the mid-2000s when the steroids scandal hit. Mark McGwire's PSA 10, a $10,000 card, dropped to $1,000. "A Bonds card, you can buy one and get one free," Young says. "But there are some cards, like Hank Aaron, that are never going down. In fact, that one is going up … because he's Hank Aaron."
All the while he collected cards. In 2009 he nabbed his favorite besides Aaron, and this one was personal. Willie Horton, former Tigers star outfielder and longtime special assistant to the team's owner, had taken Young under his wing. So when Horton's PSA 9 card popped up on eBay for $400, buying it was a no-brainer. Young sent it to PSA three times, asking that they bump it up to a 10. The third time they did.
Young, meanwhile, was among the privileged. He was paid about $52 million as a player and spent, by his estimation, about $5 million on baseball cards.
The last cards he acquired that PSA rated as 10s were of Bernie Carbo and Hal McRae. That was just a few weeks ago. Young says he's done collecting, that he's going "cold turkey," though his longtime partner Dave Bailey isn't buying it.
"Even today, he buys different things, he still collects to a certain level," Bailey says. "With the PSA 10 collection, there's just nothing left out there to get."
Young admits he'll still scour eBay and stay connected enough to know if the only Mickey Mantle rookie PSA 10 goes on the market. Or if a PSA 10 of Willie Mays, Frank Robinson, Roger Maris or Nolan Ryan surfaces. None are known to exist.
"I just bought a bunch of '81 Topps sets," he says, almost whispering. "There's never been a Fernando Valenzuela 10. It's the ugliest card you ever want to see. Mike Scioscia is in the middle and Jack Perconte, a little middle infielder dude, is on the other side. It's usually off center, with smudge marks, print marks.
Young rattles off names. He has one of only two 1954 Hank Aaron cards rated as a Gem Mint 10 by the Professional Sports Authenticators (PSA), an independent third-party memorabilia grading company.
"Young's zealousness has gotten the best of him at times. He admits to overpaying for the only Ernie Banks Gem Mint 10. In fact, he overpaid for plenty of cards when he started collecting in 2000. Young fell into the hobby while playing for the Cincinnati Reds. He and pitcher Danny Graves were each promised $2,000 to appear at a card show, and Young became intrigued by the wares. He saw a Pete Rose rookie card and asked the proprietor if he could have it in lieu of payment.
"I knew nothing about graded cards, so when he gave me a PSA 8 Pete Rose, I said, 'Why is it in a case?' " Young says. "The guy explained what PSA was. It got me curious, and throughout the year I'd go online and see what was going on. That offseason my wife told me I needed a hobby. I was sitting around doing absolutely nothing, letting old wounds heal. So I started buying PSA 8s. Rookies, of course. Then I started buying the 9s, then people started offering me 10s online. The next thing you know, the collection started."
The Reds traded Young to the Detroit Tigers before the 2002 season, and to commemorate the deal he bought an Al Kaline 1954 rookie card rated by PSA as a 10.
They landed the Clemente card for $150,000, a little more than half the initial asking price. Reggie Jackson's PSA 10 was a coup. So was Roy Campanella's. Young spent tens of thousands on full sets of cards just to find a single hot rookie.
"For instance, I bought cases of the 1982 Topps set – Lee Smith's rookie year," Young says. "I'd go through them and pick out the Lee Smith cards. While I'm in there, I'd also set aside the Cal Ripkens and the Kent Hrbecks. I easily recouped what I spent because I had maybe 10 Cal Ripken cards, and at that time they were going for $1,000 each. Plus, I got the Lee Smiths."
Card values took a nosedive in the mid-2000s when the steroids scandal hit. Mark McGwire's PSA 10, a $10,000 card, dropped to $1,000. "A Bonds card, you can buy one and get one free," Young says. "But there are some cards, like Hank Aaron, that are never going down. In fact, that one is going up … because he's Hank Aaron."
All the while he collected cards. In 2009 he nabbed his favorite besides Aaron, and this one was personal. Willie Horton, former Tigers star outfielder and longtime special assistant to the team's owner, had taken Young under his wing. So when Horton's PSA 9 card popped up on eBay for $400, buying it was a no-brainer. Young sent it to PSA three times, asking that they bump it up to a 10. The third time they did.
Young, meanwhile, was among the privileged. He was paid about $52 million as a player and spent, by his estimation, about $5 million on baseball cards.
The last cards he acquired that PSA rated as 10s were of Bernie Carbo and Hal McRae. That was just a few weeks ago. Young says he's done collecting, that he's going "cold turkey," though his longtime partner Dave Bailey isn't buying it.
"Even today, he buys different things, he still collects to a certain level," Bailey says. "With the PSA 10 collection, there's just nothing left out there to get."
Young admits he'll still scour eBay and stay connected enough to know if the only Mickey Mantle rookie PSA 10 goes on the market. Or if a PSA 10 of Willie Mays, Frank Robinson, Roger Maris or Nolan Ryan surfaces. None are known to exist.
"I just bought a bunch of '81 Topps sets," he says, almost whispering. "There's never been a Fernando Valenzuela 10. It's the ugliest card you ever want to see. Mike Scioscia is in the middle and Jack Perconte, a little middle infielder dude, is on the other side. It's usually off center, with smudge marks, print marks.
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