"Because I love history, the thing that really got to me was that it's a photo, a real photo of real people, basically taken right after the Civil War," Gallego says. "That's what got to me. I don't know much about them. Who are they? What are they thinking? Those kind of questions go through my mind."
Next is the big question: How much is this card worth?
Mirigian says he expects six figures.
The Gallegos are content to put it on eBay and "let it fly."
Orlando offers: "The last one that I'm aware, it sold about a year to a year and a half ago, and it sold for well into five figures. You have to let the market decide what it's worth when you're dealing with something this scarce, because there's just not the market history to determine it."
But who would pay that kind of money for a baseball card?
"A lot of people use sports memorabilia and sports cards as conversation pieces," Orlando says. "And what a conversation piece this is."
That could mean anybody from a businessman who is a baseball fan to a baseball executive. That's the kind of stuff that Mirigian and Gallego sit around talking about.
"You might have George Steinbrenner wanting to buy this," Mirigian told her one day, referring to the longtime New York Yankees owner.
"Who's George Steinberg?" she asked.
Plans are to put the card back on eBay, though the auction is expected to draw a little more attention this time, thanks to Mirigian, who is already plotting marketing schemes and sales tactics. He'll get a percentage of the sale for his part.
"I find it so hard to believe that this little card is worth so much," Bernice says. "Neither one of us count chickens before they hatch. We don't want to expect the world out of this find. It's good enough that we've found it, and have been able to enjoy it and share it with a few of our friends. That for us is more of where it's at."
It's not the first time Bernice has unexpectedly walked into a windfall. She hit a $250,000 jackpot playing quarter slots at Harrah's in Lake Tahoe.
"She's a very lucky lady," Al Gallego says.
That was 10 years ago. Now this. Next? Who knows.
"We gotta live at least another 10 years for the next one," Bernice says.
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