He’s the Sultan of Swap.
Sports memorabilia icon Brandon Steiner recently acquired 4 million trading cards — including 30 Babe Ruths — in what might be the biggest baseball-card deal ever.
Steiner, 66, obtained the colossal collection — which he told The Post could be worth up to $7 million — from New Jersey’s Barry Telesnick, whom he called a fellow “crazy, serial collector.”
The unprecedented lot includes every Topps baseball set since 1948, prized rookies, and thousands of autographed cards.
“My first thought when I met him was, ‘This actually could just be a trading card museum right now,’” Steiner said.
“I still feel a little guilty because part of me feels like then the world could share it.”
Telesnick, who owns a landscape construction company, spent over 50 years amassing the impressive stockpile.
The collection sat in his attic — with an exhaust fan, motion detectors, a smoke alarm and cameras to keep it safe — for 35 years.
“I’m still having trouble parting with everything,” said Woodbridge’s Telesnick, 55. “Some of these sets took 40 years to put together to complete.”
“There are a bunch of sets and cards that I’ve never seen,” added Steiner. “When this comes to market, people are going to flip out.”
Steiner, who made a name for himself after founding Steiner Sports, launched CollectibleXchange in 2019, an online marketplace where collectors can buy and list items.
The Brooklyn native said most of Telesnick’s cards — which will take him months to verify, authenticate and grade — will eventually be listed on his website, and some of the rarest ones will most likely be auctioned off.
Telesnick has given them to Steiner on consignment, and will get approximately 20 to 35 percent of the profit from their sales.
Steiner admitted he’s nervous about putting the coveted cards up for grabs, and feels a responsibility to get them into the hands of people who appreciate their value.
He pointed to Derek Jeter’s famed “Mr. November” bat — the one he used on Nov. 1, 2001 to hit a walkoff homer that won Game 4 of the World Series against the Arizona Diamondbacks — as an example.
“I look back, being a little older now . . . I sold that bat for $10,000. Did I sell it to the right person?”
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
