CNN —
For over four decades, a doctor from Florida avidly collected baseball cards and sports memorabilia with some items dating back to the 1880s. Now, his collection, which is valued at $20 million, is going up for auction.
Dr. Thomas Newman, a neurologist, died following complications from Covid-19 in January, according to his wife, Nancy. He was 73.
“He was such a wonderful, deep man with so many talents,” Nancy Newman told CNN. Besides being a family man, doctor and collector, Newman was a gifted musician and golfer, Nancy said.
Over the years, the Tampa doctor collected sports memorabilia, mainly baseball cards, and even traveled to attend conventions to find pristine items to add to his growing collection. Nancy said he would jokingly call the cards his “paper babies.”
In his collection, Newman held some of the rarest cards and most are in near-perfect condition.
“One of the 1933 Babe Ruth cards (Goudey #53, PSA 9) in this collection is the finest known of its kind and we expect it to break the record of $5.2 million for any sports card,” said JP Cohen, president of Memory Lane Auctions, in a press release. “Prices for rare, historic items have exploded in the collectibles market.”
The auction house in Tustin, California, is handling Newman’s estate collection that has over 1,000 vintage and modern baseball, football and hockey trading cards and other sports memorabilia, including a baseball signed by Babe Ruth. The collection was authenticated and graded by the world’s largest sports collectibles certification company, Professional Sports Authenticator, a division of Collectors Universe, Inc, according to the press release.
