Frank Bodani

fbodani@ydr.com

He won't call the century-old Babe Ruth baseball card his favorite.

His most valuable? Definitely. His most sought-after? Probably.

Baseball cards and memorabilia are big money for Jeff Jackson, who runs JJ's Antiques, Toys & Baseball Cards in Red Lion.

He recently spread out a sampling of his 25 to 30 Ruth cards at his store. Who knows if anyone else has that many in such good condition? The gem is that 1916 rookie card, the one with Ruth as a left-handed pitcher for the Boston Red Sox.

Last year, Jackson probably could have sold that card for $140,000. He nearly did let it go recently for $180,000 before his wife, Jan, talked him out of it.

Now, he thinks he could get between $250,000 and $300,000, and he doesn't know where it will stop.

"It's like playing the stock market. It's like investing in artwork," Jan Jackson said.

"Why sell something that's on the way up?" Jeff Jackson said. "It just doesn't make any sense."

Maybe only because of the lure to buy the next great piece of baseball history.

Always there is something more rare and more intriguing for Jeff Jackson, 52, who spends big money to acquire vintage cards and artifacts. There are Honus Wagner cards he's never had. There's a Baltimore minor league Ruth card from 1915 that's even more rare and valuable than the ones he has.

There's always something else. But the magic of it all is not just in the money. It's the history of the game. It's the thrill of the chase. It's the fever of collecting and wanting to have the best of whatever it is.

Part of it goes back to when Jackson was a kid collecting with quarters, which slowly evolved into buying other peoples' collections with the help of his father. He began selling in a Red Lion shop in 1983 and is still there all these years later, even though the card collectible business has drastically changed and most dealers are long gone.

Back in the mid- to late-80s Jackson used his connections with wholesalers to take full advantage of the hobby boom. Nearly all of his sales were from new product manufactured at never-stop rates.

He was open six days a week from noon until 9 p.m. He remembers a two- or three-year span where he sold more than $1,000 of inventory each day.

"It was crazy. You almost hated to go home," he said.

But when the market became over-saturated, people stopped lining up to buy, and Jackson went back to roofing full-time. He stayed in the card business by buying huge collections that most people couldn't afford or simply wouldn't have room to store. He also focused more on vintage product like tobacco cards from the turn of the 20th century and oddities like a Shoeless Joe Jackson signed check that he recently sold at auction for $51,000.

It's still nothing for him to drop $10,000 on a collection of 10 van loads of cards, even if it takes two years to sort through it all. Flipping through endless stacks of cardboard is therapeutic in a way, calming and yet invigorating at hunting for treasure.

He says he owns about 15 million cards spread between his shop, a small warehouse and a museum of sorts in his home. He's trying to liquidate volume so he can buy more of those rare, pristine pieces.

And his hunt goes beyond even coveted 1952 Mickey Mantle rookie cards, of which he has owned several. Some of those command more than $100,000.

"People know but still only so much (about cards), "Jeff Jackson said. "They know a Ty Cobb is valuable ... but in really good shape? They have no idea."

So much of it is big money and calculated business risks.

But it's much more than that, too, or else Jackson said he wouldn't be that interested. There certainly are other ways to make a good living.

More than ever, it's about history and tradition, all of it flipping between your fingers. Each card has a story.

That's what a man recently came into his shop to talk about. Years ago he took his son to card shows on weekends, followed by lunches and dinners together, which are still some of his best memories. He was getting his young grandson involved now.

"That's what I think it's about," Jackson said. "I just like the cards."