Osacky has been collecting vintage baseball cards and other sports memorabilia since he was a teenager. Today, he works as a sports memorabilia estate appraiser. He’s a USPAP-compliant accredited member of the International Society of Appraisers and serves on the organization’s board of directors.
His company, Baseball in the Attic, partners with Professional Sports Authenticator to appraise PSA-graded collectibles. He calls Chicago home.
Osacky meets clients who need their collections evaluated. Typically, his services are requested for one of four reasons: insurance, donation, estate planning or divorce. From March 23-24, he’ll be in Dayton to evaluate a family’s sports collectibles — just one stop on a travel schedule that takes him across the country.
Osacky also appraises trading card games such as Pokemon and Magic: The Gathering. Values are based on age, condition and rarity.
How it works
For the first step in the process, potential clients send Osacky pictures of the items to ensure it’s worth the time to inspect and appraise them. Even cabinets filled with thousands of cards often hold little value. Most mass-produced cards from the 1980s and 1990s sell for just a few cents, with some exceptions. Next, he travels to see the collections in person.
“In my world,” he said, “it’s about quality, not quantity. Nobody has 100,000 cards from the 1950s. If they do, that’s a great collection.”
He talked about the concept of natural scarcity — the idea that throwing things away makes what remains very valuable. That’s true scarcity. Now, there’s something called “manufactured scarcity,” where companies will intentionally limit the amount of rare cards printed, making each new pack a highly desired, potentially high-value lottery.
Some sets are anointed more collectible than other sets. From those more collectible sets are rookie cards or color variants.
“People will buy the packs in search of that one chase card,” Osacky said. “Hopefully they hit, and it’s a million-dollar ticket.”
This manufactured scarcity causes demand. Results may vary. In 2021, Target announced that it would temporarily stop selling trading cards — of both sports and Pokemon cards — in stores following a violent dispute at one of its locations. Those involved in the fights were mainly grown men.
Osacky appraises both vintage and modern collections. He considers vintage to be 1975 and earlier for a couple of reasons. For one, 1975 was a decent year in baseball. There were four key rookie cards — Gary Carter, Robin Yount, George Brett and Jim Rice — but more importantly, the technology of the printing press changed. After 1975, cards were printed around the clock, leading to an increase in supply and a decrease in demand and value.
“In the ‘90s, a lot of stuff was almost worthless,” Osacky said. “Today is very different. Post-COVID, the market’s seen a resurgence.”
During that time, many were digging through cabinets and garages for items to send in for authentication and grading. In turn, their values were further documented and increased in value.
When Osacky is not traveling, his day-to-day is writing up formal appraisal reports back home in Chicago. He then sends the reports to his clients.
He’s been fortunate to appraise some great sports items: the 1914 Cracker Jack set, Babe Ruth autographs, World Series rings and — “the holy grail of baseball card collecting” — the T206 Honus Wagner. Only 50 to 100 still exist.
When Osacky was a teenager, he attended local card shows with his parents, often held at Ramadas or Holiday Inns. He’d walk the show floor, enamored by stunning images on the cards, asking dealers questions: Why is this worth that? What makes this card special?
At the time, he thought the only careers in the hobby were working at an auction house, grading company or as a dealer — none of which interested him. It wasn’t until much later that he realized sports memorabilia appraising could be a career.
In the decades since, he’s traveled the country evaluating collections. He’s the person who is now asked the questions.
“I just never know what I’m going to see, who I’m going to be talking to,” Osacky said. “It’s not just about the collection. It’s also the people behind the collection.”
And it all traces back to a simple gift from his grandfather: a worn shoebox of baseball cards that turned into a lifelong passion.
Brandon Berry covers the music and arts scene in Dayton and Southwest Ohio. Reach him at branberry100@gmail.com.
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