1865 baseball card found at Maine yard sale to be sold at auction; only 2 known to exist

BIDDEFORD, Maine – Six-figure bids are expected when a rare 148-year-old baseball card discovered at a rural Maine yard sale is auctioned.

Saco River Auction Co. in Biddeford is holding an auction Wednesday that includes a card depicting the Brooklyn Atlantics amateur baseball club.

The card isn’t the same as a modern-day baseball card, which became common in the 1880s. Rather, it’s an original photograph from 1865 mounted on a card, showing nine players and a manager.

The Library of Congress says it’s aware of only two copies of the photo. The other is in the institution’s collection.

The auction house says a man found the card inside an old photo album he bought while antique picking in the small town of Baileyville near the Canadian border.

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