 | | John Carpenter |
For John Carpenter, it's a lifelong passion spawned from one simple signed picture.
"In 1974, my mom gave me my first autographed picture of Nick Buoniconti," said Carpenter, a sports memorabilia collector.
Thirty years and thousands of autographs later, John owns one of the most awe-inspiring collections of sports memorabilia in the world, recognized nationally by Ripley's Believe It or Not as the largest private collection.
His 6,000+ item stockpile can barely fit into his own home. John has items ranging from jerseys to autographed balls to historical items that even some of the professional organizations don't have.
Even when John takes time off from actively collecting, his mailman still gets plenty of work, delivering more than 500 new items a year.
But even John couldn't tell you how much his mass of memorabilia is worth.
"I can't put a price on it, it's priceless to me," said Carpenter.
But don't expect to see any price tags on his pieces anytime soon.
"I'm not going sell it for the world, Bill Gates couldn't even buy it," he said.
If you look below, you can see a photograph of a football that Jim Thorpe kicked. It has been verified by the National Football League Hall of Fame, which makes it very valuable.
"The NFL Hall of Fame doesn't have a helmet or anything like this," Carpenter Said.
This isn't the only thing of Carpenter's that has ties to the Portsmouth Spartans. He also has a leather helmet, and a few documents. One of the documents is Lester Schisler's $30 interest in the team, which later became the Detroit Tigers.
Below, if you click on the images, you can see the two different times that John has been featured in Riply's Believe it or Not!, as well as the famous football that Jim Thorpe Kicked.
 | | Ripleys 1 |
 | | Ripley's 2 |
 | | Jim Thorpe Football |
|
