Neurologist's Babe Ruth card expected to break auction records in OC

TUSTIN, Calif. (KABC) -- On the other side of this vaulted door sits a one-of-a-kind sports and Americana collection nearly four decades in the making.

JP Cohen, president of Memory Lane Auctions, said this was one of the biggest collections compiled by one collector his company has handled.

"This collection is so vast. It consists of thousands of cards and memorabilia. In fact, it's all here in this vault ready to go to auction," Cohen said.

The collector behind it is the late Dr. Thomas Newman of Florida. The neurologists' son, Steward Newman, said after their family lost Dr. Newman to COVID-19 last January, they knew it was time to share his father's passion with the world.

It started as a childhood hobby in the 50s.

"Like many other people from that generation, when he went away to school, his mom just threw the cards out, which is why, of course, these old cards are so valuable now," Stewart Newman said.

Dr. Newman started his collection back up in the 80s.

Stewart Newman remembered travelling to National Baseball Card Conventions with his dad.

"We would travel there together. We'd fly up to those cities and go to those conventions for two, three days every summer, so that was fun," Stewart Newman said.

The pastime-turned-obsession landed Dr. Newman with baseball cards dating back to the late 1800s, all the way to modern-day sports icons, but the owner had a strong hold on what he called his "paper babies."

"He was the type of collector that, if he was to buy a card for a hundred dollars and you came back and offered him 10 times that amount of money, a week later he wouldn't sell it. He really loved his cards," Cohen said.

The estimated worth of this collection was more than $20 million, according to Cohen.

The centerpiece was a 1933 Goudey Babe Ruth, the only one of its kind in the world to get the level of 9 grade by PSA, according to Cohen. The PSA Mint grading scale ranges from 1 to 10, with 10 being the best condition.

"This card, we anticipate it to break all records for a single card price point. The record is $5.2 million, and it was a Mickey Mantle card that sold in the past, and we expect this to pass that right by," Cohen said.

Dr. Newman's son says were his father still around, there would be no auction.

"He knew that was likely the plan, but the notoriety and excitement and the kind of hype that's come of it and finally getting the kind of due that he probably should've gotten for a long time had he been a little more public about what he owned, I think he would enjoy it," Stewart Newman said.

Anyone interested in bidding or just watching the auction can register or watch here. The online catalogue-form auction is scheduled to start in mid-June and close on July 10.