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Baseball cards found in attic might fetch millions

An Ohio man tripped on a baseball treasure trove in his grandfather’s attic, finding trading cards of legends Christy Mathewson, Ty Cobb, Cy Young and Honus Wagner.

Karl Kissner came upon a soot-covered cardboard box, under a wooden dollhouse, opened it and stared into the faces of baseball’s greatest early players.

“It’s like finding the Mona Lisa in the attic,” said Kissner, 51.At least one memorabilia expert, who authenticated Kissner’s find, said he’s never seen collection like this.

“Every future find will ultimately be compared to this,” said Joe Orlando, president of Professional Sports Authenticator.

The best of the cards, 37 of them, are expected to fetch about $500,000 at an auction next month at the National Sports Collectors Convention in Baltimore.

All 700 cards in the collection could score about $3 million, experts said.The cards belonged to Kissner’s grandfather, Carl Hench, who passed away in the 1940s.

Hench operated a meat market in Defiance, and Kissner believes he got the baseball cards as promotional items from a candy company.

“We guess he stuck them in the attic and forgot about them,” Kissner said. “They remained there frozen in time.”

With Post Wire Services