Jack believes he is sitting on a record collection that is super valuable. I guess now he think he's sitting on a goldmine with sports cards.
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I used to collect cards when I was a kid. About a decade ago I went through them and most were worth jack shit because every other person my age did, too. I found out that cards that are ungraded are worth a lot less since people want to know what they're getting is valid and the condition is right. Cards graded by a non-reputable grading company are worth a lot less, too.
Montana's rookie card, if a 10/10, is worth a lot (around $40k). It looks like Aikman's rookie card, if a 10, is worth around $485. Marino's when graded a 10 is like $4.5k. However, 10/10 cards are very, very rare. Cards back then had shitty quality control and even today most cards fresh out of the pack are not 10/10. If the cards are a 9/10 or 8/10, the value goes down by a lot. The amount differs but for cards like these where the cards are common but 10/10s are very rare, a 9/10 is worth like 10% of what the 10/10 is, so the Marino would be $450 instead of $4.5k. For an example, Ricky Henderson's rookie card from 1980 is not very rare. 1980 Topps was mass produced. A 10/10 is worth over $100k. A 9/10 is worth about $1600. There's been about 35,000 graded, and only 25 have been 10/10 and 2200 have been 9/10
Plus it looks like Jack made the same mistake I did as a kid. Those screw-down holders are real bad for cards. They were pushed hard when I was collecting cards as the safest way to keep cards safe, but it turns out a plastic flimsy sleeve and then inside of a more rigid plastic sleeve is the way to go to keep them safest. The screw down holders are too tight and can lead to the card splitting in two when you take it out and also make bends and nicked corners worse.
It's hard to give a grade on those cards, but I highly doubt they're 10/10s or even 9/10s. Todd's estimate is probably not far off. The Aikman card suffers from having a green corner, which chips easily (as seen in the photo).
