Jerry Reed was an American country musician, session guitarist, songwriter, comedian, and actor who passed away in 2008 at the age of 71. Though best known as a country music singer and for his roles in films such as ‘Smokey and the Bandit,’ Reed began his career in the 1950s as a session musician in Nashville, playing guitar on recording sessions for artists such as Elvis Presley, Chet Atkins, and Marty Robbins.
Reed likely never imagined at the height of his music career that over 60 years later, collectors would be seeking out Jerry Reed baseball cards from his time as a young athlete prior to establishing himself as a musician. A small set of rare vintage cards featuring Jerry Reed from his teenage baseball playing days in the early 1950s have become highly sought after pieces for collectors on Comic Connect (COMC), one of the largest online marketplaces for buying and selling collectibles.
Born in 1937 in Atlanta, Georgia, Jerry Reed Roberts (he later changed his name professionally to Jerry Reed) showed athletic prowess from a young age. He excelled at baseball and briefly attended Brenau College on a baseball scholarship. During his teenage years in the early 1950s, the burgeoning musician had hopes of a professional baseball career. It was around this time that a small set of Jerry Reed baseball cards were produced by Conlon Companies, likely in short print runs distributed locally in Georgia.
Only a tiny handful of these exceedingly rare Jerry Reed baseball cards are known to exist today. They depict a clean-cut teenage Jerry Reed in a baseball uniform from his time playing for the Conlon Cardinals, an amateur/semi-pro baseball team sponsored by Conlon Chewing Gum and based in Newnan, Georgia. The simple, yet historic, cards show a photo of Reed on the front alongside basic stats and info about his playing career up to that point on the back.
Because they were produced in such tiny quantities over 60 years ago specifically for local/regional distribution, finding high grade, intact examples of Jerry Reed’s baseball cards in modern times is no simple task. Serious vintage card collectors who seek out obscure and rare pieces to populate the edges of their collections covet these windows into Reed’s early life and career prior to widespread fame and fortune in country music.
As one of the most respected online marketplaces for vintage and modern collectibles, Comic Connect (COMC) frequently hosts listings of the elusive Jerry Reed baseball cards when they surface from an elderly Georgian who held onto a reminder of their community’s native son or from an estate sale of a dedicated memorabilia collector. Buyers eagerly watch for when the highly conditioned gems become available, knowing just how few high grade copies remain in the collecting population after six decades of existence.
On COMC, Jerry Reed baseball cards in top-shelf near mint to mint condition regularly sell in the $150-300 range when they pop up, with the most pristine specimens occasionally reaching the $400-500 range if two or more qualified bidders get involved in a bidding war for the rare piece of sports and entertainment history. Copies that have issues such as creasing, corners cuts or edge wear may sell in the $75-150 range depending on the extent of the flaws for more casual collectors looking to add any example of the historic card to their holdings.
Beyond their obvious rarity and appeal to vintage baseball card collectors, the Jerry Reed cards also intrigue country music and memorabilia aficionados. They represent one of the only widely distributed works that depict Reed prior to leaving behind baseball hopes to pursue music full-time. For country music historians, they offer a unique snapshot into Reed’s early life ambitions before the success of songs like “Guitar Man,” “U.S. Male,” and “When You’re Hot, You’re Hot” redefined him as an entertainer for generations.
Interestingly, Jerry Reed himself was actually quite athletically talented beyond just baseball in his youth according to those who knew him. He also showed prowess in basketball and was said to have nearly walked on to the University of Georgia basketball team before deciding to focus exclusively on a musical career. This makes his baseball cards an especially fascinating period piece from what could have been an alternate path as a professional athlete had his musical talents not developed and defined his legacy.
While Jerry Reed may primarily be remembered today as one of country music’s great singer-songwriters and character actors from the 1970s, the scant few baseball cards produced of the teenage Reed offer collectors and historians a singular portal into his early ambitions and athletic talent that nearly defined his future before the guitar became his passion and professional path. Rarely do such obscure period relics from a celebrity’s youth pop up in the collecting world, making these Jerry Reed cards highly valued one-of-a-kind editions for vintage enthusiasts when they surface on COMC or in the broader marketplace.
