Tampa man's sports memorabilia collection sells for $21.5M

Worth noting: These weren't all saved from his childhood. (Newman was 73.) Some of the items date back to the 1880s.

• He spent $2o,000 on a 1933 Goudey Babe Ruth card in the '90s, which sold for more than $4.2 million — the most valuable item in the collection.
• Another Ruth card from 1916 sold for $1,452,000. A 1952 Mickey Mantle card got $2,112,200.

His wife had no idea what they were worth until he died.

"He was just a quiet collector. He didn’t brag about it to anybody. ... He’d get them out and play with them. He called them his 'paper babies.'"