Family finds “Holy Grail” hockey card collection in basement and it’s worth millions

A ‘once in a lifetime’ sports discovery has been made after a family in Regina, Canada found out about their ultra-rare hockey card collection sitting in their basement for 40 years.

16 boxes of booster packs from NHL legend Wayne Gretzky’s rookie year have been located and a bidding war is already underway.

The boxes, authenticated by Baseball Card Exchange’s Steve Hart have a chance to contain the Wayne Gretzky rookie cards, which alone fetch a fortune. Up until now, only two Gem Mint 10 OPC Gretzky cards exist, with one selling for nearly $4M.

So, exactly how did this incredibly rare collection go undetected all these years?

Family was sitting on hockey goldmine without knowing it

According to Heritage Auctions, a set collector had purchased the boxes wholesale many years ago, but didn’t realize what he had.

“The family, since they’ve had this for 40-some years, always assumed this was a 1980 case of hockey [cards]. That’s not so bad, $300,000 to $350,000, but one day someone finally asked them, ‘you might want to check and see what’s exactly in there.’”