Over the past few years, I’ve gone from being an enjoyer and collector of cards, to a hardcore hustler of cardboard crack.  Anything I could get my hands on, I would flip for profit.  Not that there is anything wrong with that – we all have to make money somehow, and it might as well be doing something we love!

I have always kept aside the Canseco cards.  The collection had gone from going to card shows as a child and buying single Canseco cards that I didn’t have, to, mindlessly tossing anything that had Canseco’s name on it in a separate pile from collections I bought. 

It is funny how times change!  I remember vividly standing at a baseball card show at the age of 12, going through a big pile of Canseco cards.  An older lady and man who, in my memory, seemed to be in their 60’s (they were probably in their 40’s!) were carefully watching me go through the cards.  I put the pile of my carefully picked Canseco into their hands. 

“Would you accept $9 for these?”

The lady snorted and turned to her male counterpart “Did you hear that Rob?  He is asking if we’d sell these for $9.”  She then preceeded to laugh, so I walked away with my tail between my legs, and not a single Canseco richer.

I’m not saying that was the turning point of when I stopped putting thought into the collection.  Heck, there was a good 12 years or so between the time I was a kid to being an adult who got back into cards.  I even remember when the big hurricane hit over here.  There was no electricity, and I ran out of things to do.  So for the first time in years, I pulled out my Canseco collection and started sorting.  What fun! 

I kind of envisioned myself in my golden years of retirement sorting baseball cards for fun, with the Canseco collection first on the list.  Well, after I sold out of pretty much everything, I sold the Canseco collection, as it was really not anything that I had put too terribly much thought, effort or investment into. 

Then, one day, it bit me … hard.  I wanted to get back into collecting Canseco!  I thought to myself “what kind of collection could I come up with, within the budget that I had sold the collection for?” 

This idea is very intriguing to me, so I’ve been speaking with a few folks who are Canseco fans.  If it is one thing I know now, it is that while I used to almost apolegetically tell people I was a Canseco collector, there are fans who will pay BIG money for some of his rarer cards.  As a matter of fact, one Canseco card marked as a 1/1 with a normal bat piece in the card went for over $450 … with 18 or so bids!  This was no fluke!  The card didn’t look all that impressive, either. 

So sure, I have my work cut out for me.  Perhaps I’ll focus on cards I enjoy looking at, instead of ultra mega rare cards of him.  I think my wallet will thank me.  I’ve decided to focus more on the rarer lower dollar cards though (for now, anyway … ain’t no way I’m gonna drop $500 or so on a 1/1 regular looking bat card!).  As I still have about 3,000,000 cards to go in my deal with my friend, I’m anticipating replenishing 75-85% or so of my existing Canseco collection for free.

Growing up, I was an avid reader of Beckett monthly. The articles would soothe me throughout the long, cold off-season. I would see articles of people who are “super collectors” of a certain player.

I remember seeing one kid who had 9 1989 Upper Deck Griffey rookies, and thought to myself “how the heck does that happen???” I dreamed that one day, my Canseco collection would propel me into the pages of my most beloved magazine.

That dream came to a screeching halt.

Enter:  AJ.  Check his site out at www.cansecoking.com – he boasts something called the “Perfection Collection”.  Why?  Because it is, well, pretty much perfect.  After checking out his stuff, and realizing that he already had been in Beckett, I realized that I will never be magazine worthy.  That’s ok though, it is great to be able to enjoy looking through his collection online.  Whenever you have a custom license plate AND a tattoo dawning Canseco’s #33, you deserve the title.