The Jabs family baseball card collection has been passed down through three generations living in Cincinnati, Ohio. What started as a simple hobby for Arthur Jabs in the 1950s became one of the most extensive baseball card collections in the Midwest containing over 100,000 individual cards spanning from the 1900s to present day.
Arthur Jabs was born in 1932 and grew up as a rabid Cincinnati Reds fan in theOver-the-Rhine neighborhood of Cincinnati. Baseball was his passion and he loved collecting the cards that started coming out in the late 1880s featuring photos of his favorite players on the front with statistics and biographies on the back. In the early 1950s the production of baseball cards boomed with companies like Topps, Bowman, and Fleer saturating the market. Arthur saved his allowance and money from odd jobs to purchase wax packs of cards to add to his growing collection.
During this time period cards were comparatively cheap and plentiful. Arthur had the foresight to save not just his favorite stars but full sets knowing they may become more valuable some day. He amassed a collection of over 10,000 cards from the 1950s featuring the likes of Jackie Robinson, Willie Mays, Mickey Mantle and Reds greats like Ted Kluszewski and Frank Robinson. Arthur took meticulous care in storing the cards in sleeves and protective binders.
In the 1960s Arthur’s passion for the cards only grew. By this time the bubblegum card era was in full swing with new sets released each year. Arthur snatched up boxes of cards at his local drug stores and corner stores. He continued building not just his Reds collection but sets and stars from across baseball. In the late 60s the population of Cincinnati swelled along with Arthur’s financial means working at a local bank. This allowed him to start regularly attending Reds games and pick up cards directly from the players in the clubhouse before and after games.
Pete Rose, Johnny Bench, Tony Perez and the “Big Red Machine” of the 1970s provided Arthur with a lifetime of fandom and opportunities to directly interact with his sports heroes. By this time Arthur’s sons Michael and David had caught the collecting bug from their father. They would team up combing flea markets, local shops and collector shows for deals to strengthen their already prized collection. Their dedication to completeness and condition made the Jabs one of the most reputable and knowledgeable collecting families in the region.
In the late 1970s the value of vintage cards really started to appreciate. While the Jabs continued adding to their hoard they also started carefully going through their existing stock and high grading the condition of each item. Anything below mint condition was carefully stored away in the archive. Their elite mint items were placed for pedigree tracking and safekeeping. By the early 1980s the Jabs collection included 100,000+ cards valued at over $500,000 establishing them as serious collectors rather than casual hobbyists.
Michael and David took over primary care of the ever growing collection upon Arthur’s retirement in the 1990s. They digitized the archived collection, continued to flip vintage cards for profit to acquire new additions and invested in supplies/storage solutions to preserve condition. The rise of the internet in the late 90s allowed them to expand their trading network on newly formed message boards and early auction sites like eBay. Huge modern stars of the steroid era like Ken Griffey Jr, Mark McGwire, and Sammy Sosa entered the Jabs world.
In the 2000s Michael’s son Joseph began seriously helping expand and care for the remarkable assortment of cardboard and paper. Joseph focused more energy on the business/investment side of things flipping and acquiring complete vintage and golden era sets that had continuously appreciated since the collecting boom of the 1950s. Social media platforms and specialized collecting apps have further expanded how the family connects with the hobby on a local and global scale.
Today the immaculately organized and catalogued Jabs collection fills three temperature controlled storage units on the outskirts of Cincinnati and is valued conservatively at $3 million dollars. It remains a true labor of love for baseball and its history passed down through generations of one dedicated family. While pieces of their archive have been sold to fund new acquisitions, the Jabs have no intention of fully liquidating. Their sprawling collection is a prized source of enjoyment, education and income that is poised to become a local institution for generations of baseball fans to come.
