He paid US$75 for baseball cards glued to a wooden chest. They’re likely worth thousands of dollars.

Old baseball cards glued to trunk from estate sale in Providence, RI. (WBZ via CNN Newsource)

PROVIDENCE, Rhode Island (WBZ) -- Some very rare baseball cards are now up for auction after they were found in an unlikely place.

For antique collector Tom Conrad, a good find usually means an old advertising sign, oil can or soda bottles. But when he stumbled upon a box of baseball cards from the early 1900’s on Facebook Marketplace, he knew he’d found something special.

“I hate to say once in a lifetime find, but it really is right up there,” Conrad said.

Conrad bought the collection for just US$75 from someone who had originally picked it up at an estate sale in Providence, Rhode Island. Inside a wooden chest, he discovered 122 baseball cards dating from 1909 to 1911 featuring legends such as Cy Young, Christy Mathewson and John McGraw.

The cards were glued to the inside of the chest, a preservation choice that may have helped keep them intact for more than a century. Many of the cards remain stuck to the chest but are removable.

Conrad has since listed the collection on his antique Facebook page, where the top bid has climbed to $6,700.

Among the highlights is a 1909 Cy Young card, which experts say could be worth thousands.

“In poor condition it’s still a couple grand,” said Matt Sharps, a trading card specialist at Card Vault, a card shop co-owned by Tom Brady. “I saw a couple years ago there was a sale and a graded 8, which is near mint, sold for over $100,000.”

Sharps said the discovery is the kind collectors dream about.

“These cards used to come in boxes of cigarettes back in the day, you get a little card with your pack of cigarettes,” Sharps said. “A lot of them got destroyed, and people thought they were going to be worthless, so finding them still intact all this time later is unreal.”

For Conrad, the cards represent more than money. They’re art.

“It’s a true piece of history for baseball itself, but for Americana in general,” he said. “Just thinking that someone thought to put these in the trunk lid to conserve them like that.”

For more information, head to Conrad’s Facebook page, Smalls to the Walls Auctions.

By Logan Hall, WBZ