The winning bidder of more than a dozen unopened boxes of classic hockey cards uncovered in a Regina home says he鈥檚 feeling remorse over his $3.7-million-dollar purchase after hearing how sad the runner-up was upon losing out.
鈥淲hen I heard the runner-up bidder was literally devastated by missing out on acquiring this, I felt real empathy for him,鈥� Jack Arshawsky of Thornhill, Ont. said in an interview, adding he鈥檚 hoping someone famous, perhaps even Wayne Gretzky, might be interested in taking the boxes off his hands.
Heritage Auctions said the lot, which sold last month, contained 16 sealed boxes of O-Pee-Chee鈥檚 1979-80 hockey card collection, amounting to more than 10,000 cards.
Odds suggest that means there could be 25 to 30 copies of Gretzky rookie cards in the collection.
Arshawsky, who said he鈥檚 in the real-estate business, explained that he鈥檚 not a huge card collector himself but has a keen eye for value, and was keeping close tabs on online bidding for the boxes as the auction deadline loomed in February. He said he already owns one rookie Gretzky card, something that had once belonged to his uncle, which further piqued his interest.
He said he drank four cans of energy drink to stay sharp as each new bid prompted a half-hour wait for responses. There was a celebration when he won, he said, but then he watched an interview of an auction company official speaking about the second-place bidder.
鈥淚t got me thinking that I鈥檓 not really so passionate 鈥� as a lot of others would be, and I decided that it should really have a home where it鈥檚 truly appreciated for the Holy Grail of hockey cards memorabilia that it is,鈥� Arshawsky said.
So far, he said he鈥檚 reached out to a litany of stars and famous collectors including Gretzky, Edmonton Oilers owner Daryl Katz, professional poker player Daniel Negreanu and rapper Drake to see if they鈥檒l take the boxes. He only wants what he鈥檚 paid for them. No one has called back yet, though.
鈥淭hese people are basically impossible to make contact with, so it seemed like the best way get in contact with them was to announce it to the world and somebody 鈥� one of their friends 鈥� are probably going to eventually inform them that, hey, your name was mentioned with the guy who won the auction .. and he believed that you might give these cards a good home,鈥� he said.
Arshawsky made it clear he鈥檚 got the money to cover his bid 鈥� he inherited a bundle from an uncle who鈥檇 bought farmland in the Greater Toronto Area decades ago and later sold it.
The discovery of the boxes, and the bidding to acquire them, garnered significant attention.
Jason Simonds, the sports consignment director at Heritage Auctions, said when bidding was underway that the boxes were a 鈥渙nce-in-a-generation find,鈥� adding he believed it was the first time a case had been made available since 1979.
Simonds told The Canadian Press he got involved after a man and his father in Regina found the case when they were clearing out a storage room in the house. He said the father has been a longtime collector, noting he also had a set of baseball cards in the storage room worth about $200,000.
The family asked to remain anonymous.
The cards were brought to Indiana in an armoured vehicle to get it authenticated. Baseball Card Exchange, which inspected the boxes, found them to be in pristine condition and sealed.
Each box of the hockey cards contains 48 packs, and each pack has 14 cards. A pack cost 20 cents in 1979.
A mint condition Gretzky rookie card fetched $3.75 million when it was auctioned in 2021, although Simonds explained it鈥檚 likely that not all Gretzky cards within the boxes will attain the highest rating of 鈥済em mint 10.鈥�
Arshawsky said the cards remain in a vault in Texas. He said he鈥檇 like them to go to someone who will display them where the public could see them, and that if no one suitable wants them, he鈥檒l give them to a former school crush who he said inspired his interest in hockey.
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