Young swallows a hunk of the tongue sandwich. “I’m going to do his voice the best I can,” he says, imitating the laid-back Fick. ” ‘Hey, bro, how much you pay for that?’ “
“Forty-five thousand.”
“Dude, you’re getting ripped off. Dude, I want you to meet my boy, Dave Bailey.”
“Ok, cool.”
Bailey, a longtime Detroit-based memorabilia collector and dealer, was introduced to Young at a postgame get-together. They huddled in a corner and talked about baseball cards until the wee hours. Bailey began negotiating deals for Young, and soon they became partners in assembling the world’s greatest rookie collection.
They landed the Clemente card for $150,000, a little more than half the initial asking price. Reggie Jackson’s PSA 10 was a coup. So was Roy Campanella’s. Young spent tens of thousands on full sets of cards just to find a single hot rookie.