DEA Holding Some Mighty Fine Cards

Arrest of Physician Puts Prized Rarities in the Hands of Federal Drug Agency

Searching for a 1909 Ty Cobb baseball card, part of the rare T206 series printed by the Sweet Caporal Cigarettes company? How about a 1938 Goudey card featuring Joe DiMaggio?

You may be in luck. They're under federal guard, in the custody of the federal Drug Enforcement Administration, and could one day be auctioned to the public.

The DEA is accustomed to seizing the ill-gotten gains of alleged drug dealers: Rolexes, assault rifles, the occasional Mercedes-Benz. But when a federal jury indicted Tennessee physician Rosaire "Ross" DuBrule last year and charged him with violating controlled-substances laws, the DEA seized $4 million worth of his personal property stored in a series of safe-deposit boxes.

Along with rare coins, agents found assorted sports memorabilia, especially baseball cards -- more than 1,200 of them. The DEA meticulously itemized them and had each one appraised, placing their total value at $280,000.

Many are run-of-the-mill, but about two dozen cards are considered rarities. They include a 1909 card of St. Louis Cardinal Bill O'Hara (T-206 Polar Bear Cigarettes) worth $6,000, a 1912 card of Detroit Tiger Ty Cobb (#3, Series of Champions T227) worth $15,000, and a 1952 card of New York Giant Willie Mays (Topps #261) worth $3,000.

"This is very unusual," said Rusty Payne, a DEA spokesman. He said he could not recall baseball cards being an investment of choice of an alleged drug dealer.

DuBrule's collection did not include the rarest of cards, the legendary Honus Wagner, whose image as a Pittsburgh Pirates shortstop (he retired in 1917) recently sold for $2.8 million. But DuBrule did procure some sought-after classics of Hall of Famers, said Susan Mackay, registrar at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y. For instance, there is a 1964 card of Minnesota Twin Harmon Killebrew (Topps #177) worth $1,500.

"This is someone who knew what he was doing," Mackay said. "The average person wouldn't know some of these Hall of Famers."

Kristin Helm, a spokeswoman for the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, which worked on the case against DuBrule, said authorities do not know how long DuBrule had been collecting but that he patronized card dealers.

While a proliferation of new baseball cards in the 1980s and 1990s has been blamed for diluting the market and the overall sales of sports memorabilia has been declining, experts say rare finds remain a good investment.

"The best of the best are continuing to escalate, to bring record prices, top dollar, no end in sight," said Leila Dunbar, a star of "Antiques Roadshow" who left her job Friday as director of collectibles for Sotheby's to start her own consulting firm. "Great cards continue to appreciate in value."

DuBrule has until July 22 to contest the government's seizure of the property. His lawyer, Marty B. McAfee, said Thursday it was unclear whether DuBrule would petition for the return of his baseball cards and coins.