The Great Greg Briley Caper

How a 60k Card Collection Buy Turned into 10,400 Copies of One Player

David Upham had made the drive for collections before—quick Facebook Marketplace meetups, Craigslist hauls, the occasional surprise find that turned into a goldmine. But nothing in his five-year father-son collecting journey with 12-year-old Jax could have prepared him for what he found in a Safeway parking lot in Lacey, Washington. Inside the boxes he’d just loaded into the car were no rookie treasures, no hidden stars—just row after row, 13 boxes in all, of one player: Greg Briley, a late-’80s Seattle Mariners outfielder whose big-league career barely spanned six seasons with the Mariners and Florida Marlins. Approximately 10,400 pristine copies of the same card, the result of a scam that could have soured the hobby for good. Instead, it became one of the Upham’s most legendary—and strangely joyful—stories.

The Spark: Rediscovering the Hobby

Like many collectors in their 40s, David had a familiar arc: childhood binders, a long break, then a pandemic-era return to the hobby. In 2020, with the rise of COVID, he and Jax began spending weekends hunting for card lots and unopened boxes.

Their first big score came from a seller in Texas. This $450 “treasure chest” of mixed cards yielded some valuable cards: a Will Clark and a Ken Griffey Jr., among others. That experience taught them the thrill of buying whole collections: the fun of sorting through decades of baseball history, keeping some for their personal collections, and selling the rest to fund the next big find.

Over the next few years, they bought five collections in total—over a quarter million cards—sourced mostly through Facebook Marketplace, Craigslist, and word-of-mouth. The routine was simple: avoid spending too much on new wax, pool their money, and hunt for bulk buys that could hold hidden gems.

The Scam: All Briley, All the Time

The Greg Briley saga began with an innocuous listing. The photos showed loose stacks of cards, a couple of binders, and, prominently displayed, a gorgeous Frank Thomas rookie card. That was all David needed to see.

Jax was skeptical. “Dad, I don’t have a good feeling about this,” he said as they set off on the 90-minute drive. But optimism won out. They met the seller in a Safeway parking lot just before sunset. There was no time to thumb through the cards; the boxes were taped shut, and the seller claimed he’d bought them from a storage unit. Cash was exchanged, boxes were loaded, and the seller drove away.

Curiosity got the better of them almost immediately. Before leaving the parking lot, David cracked open a box. Every card inside was Greg Briley. He opened another—same thing. By the third box, they realized something was up. In total, there were 13 boxes, each containing 800 cards, all of which were 1989 Topps Baseball #791 Greg Briley cards. No Griffeys, no Jordans, no stars of any kind. Just an endless sea of teal Mariners uniforms and Briley’s batting stance, in perfect, untouched condition.

Nothing but stacks and stacks of Brileys (📷 courtesy of David Upham)

By The Numbers: The Greg Briley Collection

• Total Cards: Approximately 60,000 cards in this collection
• Total Number of Briley Cards: 10,400
• Total Number of Briley-Exclusive Boxes: 13 boxes (800-count each)
• Year Covered: 1989. That’s it, 1989
• Condition: sharp corners, perfect edges – as if they were printed yesterday
• Other Players: No other players in the 13 boxes
• Career Games Played by Greg Briley: 697 (1988-1993; 1995)
• Distance Driven to Get them: 90 miles round-trip
• Time Before Realizing the Scam: Under five minutes
• Time Spent Laughing About it Since: Ongoing, and possibly forever

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From Frustration to Fun

For a moment, the sting of being scammed was real. But instead of letting the disappointment kill their momentum, David and Jax decided to flip the script. They took a photo of the “Briley Mountain” and posted it online. The absurdity struck a chord—comments poured in, jokes flew, and the story spread far enough to catch the attention of Fanatics Collectibles’ CEO.

The Uphams began brainstorming ways to make the best of their bizarre haul:

• A documentary road trip to track down Greg Briley, get some of the best-condition cards signed, then hand-carry them to BGS in for grading.
• A charity auction of those signed-and-graded cards, turning the scam into something that could help others.
• An art installation, maybe a mural or giant portrait, built entirely from Briley cards.

David even considered reaching out to the Mariners to see if the team would get in on the fun. “If we can take a bad situation that was meant for harm or meant to rip someone off—me, namely—and turn it into something good, that would be amazing,” he said.

Lessons Learned: A Guide for Collection Collectors

While the Briley haul has become a running joke, it also reinforced some hard-earned rules for buying collections:

1. Always negotiate time to inspect cards before purchase
2. Be wary of taped-up boxes—it may be a way to hide bad contents
3. Trust your gut (or your kid’s) when something feels off.
4. Maintain relationships with honest sellers, and if you find something big they didn’t know they had, consider sharing the upside.

Not every collection will be a win, but David sees value in every hunt, especially in how it’s teaching Jax baseball history. Together, they’ve discovered Dennis Eckersley highlights, marveled at Bo Jackson’s athletic feats, and relived Randy Johnson’s dominance.

Personal Collection Favorites

For David, his PC (personal collection) is anchored by Ken Griffey Jr. and Nolan Ryan. For Jax, it’s Ronald Acuña Jr., Adolis García, and Frank Thomas, along with unique vintage inserts from past buys. They still rip the occasional modern box, but more often, David hunts for singles.

Looking Ahead for the Next Collection

The Uphams are now saving for a major end-of-year purchase: something in the $5,000 to $10,000 range that could be their biggest collection yet. And when that day comes, they’ll know exactly what to look for and what to avoid.

In the meantime, 13 boxes of Greg Briley sit in storage, a cardboard monument to one unforgettable day in their collecting life. What started as a scam has become a family—and potentially a Hobby—legend. Now that the Uphams are the proud owners of the largest Greg Briley PC of all time, it’s proof that in the world of collecting, sometimes the best stories come from the strangest hauls.

The world’s largest Greg Briley card collection (📷 courtesy of David Upham)

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