A doctor in Florida who died of COVID-19 left his family a baseball card collection worth $20 million

• Dr. Thomas Newman died of COVID-19 complications in January at 73.
• Newman left his family a collection of baseball cards worth an estimated $20 million.
• His 1933 Babe Ruth card is expected to break the record price of $5.2 million for a card at auction.

For over 40 years, Florida neurologist Dr. Thomas Newman carefully curated an extensive collection of baseball cards, with some dating back to the 1880s.

When Newman died from COVID-19 complications in January at 73 years old, he left all of his baseball cards to his family. According to Memory Lane Auctions, and authenticated by Collectors Universe, Inc., Newman's collection is worth over $20 million.

Joe Orlando, chief executive officer of Collectors Universe, said that Newman's collection "exhibits the kind of depth and level of quality that are rarely achieved." It includes a Mickey Mantle rookie card from 1952 expected to sell for more than $1 million, and a mint condition Babe Ruth card from 1933 that Memory Lane expects to break the current record price of $5.2 million for a single baseball card.

"He jokingly called his cards his 'paper babies,' and spent almost every day attending to his collection in one way or another," his wife Nancy Newman said in a statement released by the auction house. "It gave him such pleasure. The only reason he would ever sell a card was if he had acquired the same card in a higher grade."

Memory Lane's public online auction will take place from June 21 to July 10.