When discussing the greatest athlete ever to come out of the Gem State, one name should top all lists. A mint condition,1955 baseball card of a Payette, Idaho, hall of fame athlete is considered one of the most sought-after sports cards in the industry, and if you happen to have it in your position you could fetch a pretty penny at auction.

Sports card and memorabilia collecting is an extremely popular hobby, and one that can pay the bills and then some. I've been collecting since the eighties, and while I have some very valuable cards in my possession, I have yet to hit the lottery as far as the hobby is concerned.

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Harmon Killebrew is considered one of the greatest professional baseball players of all time. Killebrew was born in Payette, which is 180 miles northwest of Twin Falls. His professional statistics rival such baseball icons as Mickey Mantle, Lou Gehrig, Ty Cobb, and Reggie Jackson. His rookie season was in 1955, and his debut sports card printed by Topps is worth a small fortune if preserved in great shape.

Nowadays, most collectors sell their cards online instead of directly to local card shops. The value of a card depends on the condition it's in. The corners need to be undamaged, the print needs to be clear, and the card itself has to be free of any stains or wrinkles to be considered worth pursuing.

There are businesses that specialize in grading cards (examining and assigning value), and in order to get the most money from a card in a sale the item needs to be a nine or 10 on the grade scale.

The 1955 Topps Harmon Killebrew rookie card #124 (grade 9 or better) is hands down the most valuable sports card of any Idaho-born professional athlete. Of all the baseball cards printed by Topps in 1955, only the Sandy Koufax and Roberto Clemente cards are considered more valuable. What a person with this card could fetch depends on how badly the buyer wants it.

30 famous people you might not know were college athletes

Stacker dug deep to find 30 celebrities who were previously college athletes. There are musicians, politicians, actors, writers, and reality TV stars. For some, an athletic career was a real, promising possibility that ultimately faded away due to injury or an alternate calling. Others scrapped their way onto a team and simply played for fun and the love of the sport. Read on to find out if your favorite actor, singer, or politician once sported a university jersey.

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