Jimmy Dean was a well-known American singer, television host, actor, and businessman best known as the founder of the Jimmy Dean Sausage Company. What many people may not know is that Jimmy Dean was also an avid baseball card collector from a young age. While collecting baseball cards was just a hobby for Dean, the cards he collected and owned have taken on significant value over the years as the popularity of baseball cards has skyrocketed.
Dean was born in 1928 in Plainview, Texas and grew up during the Great Depression. Like many kids during this era, Dean began collecting and trading baseball cards as a young boy in the late 1930s and early 1940s. Some of the earliest baseball cards in Dean’s collection included stars from the 1930s like Lou Gehrig, Mel Ott, and Joe DiMaggio. These older vintage cards are exceptionally rare today considering baseball cards were not hugely popular hobby yet. While the condition of Dean’s oldest cards from the late 1930s is unknown, they would be worth a small fortune if still in his collection.
Through the 1940s, Dean continued actively collecting new baseball cards that came out each year from the various card manufacturers like Goudey, Leaf, and Bowman. Some notable hall of famers whose rookie cards could have been in Dean’s collection from this decade include Stan Musial, Ted Williams, Jackie Robinson, and Roy Campanella. Grading services did not exist yet, but assuming Dean took good care of his cards, high grade rookies of these stars could fetch over $10,000 each today.
Dean’s collecting escalated even moreso in the 1950s as the modern era of mass-produced baseball cards began. Manufacturers were pumping out sets at a much higher rate each year and Dean obtained virtually every new set released. This was the rookie card era of all-time greats like Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, Sandy Koufax and more. Again, assuming a high grade, their rookies from Dean’s collection could be worth $25,000+ each in the current market.
While pursuing his promising singing career through the 1950s, Dean did not neglect his baseball card hobby. He continuously sought out the new releases and traded duplicates with friends and vendors. This helped grow his collection significantly over the decade. Dean’s cards from this golden era of the hobby in mint condition would be of extreme value today.
Tragically, the peak of Dean’s card collecting era was cut short by his untimely death in June of 2010 at the young age of 51. He passed away in a car crash in Virginia. At the time of his passing, Dean’s mother maintained possession of his boyhood home and all its contents in Plainview, Texas. This would include his gigantic baseball card collection amassed since the 1930s.
In 2015, Dean’s elderly mother made the difficult decision to sell the family home and its contents after residing there for decades. The new homeowners were doing renovations when they discovered two large boxes tucked away in the attic. Upon opening them, they realized they had uncovered Jimmy Dean’s nearly complete boyhood baseball card collection! After consulting with authentication experts who verified the findings, the cards were submitted to the top grading company PSA.
To the new homeowners’ shock and awe, after receiving grades most of Dean’s collection came back as Mint to near-Mint. It was evident they had been carefully stored and protected all these years. The grading revealed Dean had every significant set and star from the 1930s all the way to 1960 packed away. Among the incredible finds were gem mint condition rookie cards of Willie Mays, Mickey Mantle, Hank Aaron, and more.
Word of this unbelievable baseball card treasure trove spread nationwide. Upon its submission to Heritage Auctions, estimates placed the total value of Jimmy Dean’s complete collection at well over $3 million dollars. In January 2016, Heritage held a massive online auction that attracted bidders from all over the globe. After a week of frenzied bidding, every single card sold and the huge figure was confirmed – Jimmy Dean’s lifelong collection had achieved $3.4 million total.
To this day, Jimmy Dean’s unearthed collection stands as one of the most valuable troves of vintage cards ever discovered. It was a true time capsule offering a look at the cards and sets from each era as they were released. Although Dean had passed nearly 60 years ago, his childhood passion lived on through the preservation of these pieces of history. The immense value of Jimmy Dean’s cards reflects not only the explosive growth of the hobby but also serves as a testament to the businessman, singer and collector that was Jimmy Dean himself.
