Case of unopened 1979 hockey cards from Sask. sells for over $5M at auction

A Saskatchewan family just turned a case of hockey cards into millions of dollars.

Around 1:00 a.m. EST on Sunday, bidding came to a close for a highly touted case filled with thousands of unopened 1979 O-Pee-Chee brand hockey cards that a Saskatchewan family found in their attic.

Jason Simonds, the sport card specialist for the Dallas-based Heritage Auctions that sold the cards, says the family was "over the moon" about the sale. The family has chosen to remain anonymous.

"I was texting with them last night. We stayed up until about one in the morning when the bidding ended," said Simonds over a video call on Sunday.

"The family is ecstatic, this is life-changing money."

The case holding unopened boxes of cards is estimated to possibly hold from 25 to 27 Wayne Gretzky cards from his rookie year, but no one knows for sure, according to Simonds. Values vary, but mint condition Gretzky rookie cards have been sold for $3.75 million.

There were about 15 unique bidders, but in the end it came down to an American and Canadian duking it out until the Canadian won and bought the case for $3,100,000 US ($4,180,815 Cdn).

WATCH | Bidding for Sask. mystery hockey card box tops $2 million:

With a 20 per cent buyers premium on top of the purchase, the final amount the Canadian bidder paid was $3,720,000 US ($5,016,978 Cdn).

"This had surpassed even our wildest expectations," said Simonds.

"3.72 million [US] is something that is very rarely seen in this industry. It's one of the highest-priced items ever sold at Heritage, and it's certainly the highest price sold unopened item in the sports collectibles market."

While Simonds revealed the winning bidder was a Canadian, they are remaining anonymous. 

Simonds said he imagines the