Back in 5th grade, my folks saw that I was struggling in school.  They decided to give me an incentive by way of the all mighty dollar.  For each ‘A’ this hopeless scholastic mess would achieve, I would have $10.  $5 for a B.  My brain was churning a mile a minute when I heard this news.

“Okay, okay, okay….” I thought to myself.  “If I make straight A’s, that is $80 to take to The Bullpen to spend on baseball cards at the end of the semester!

Guess who got straight A’s that semester?  This guy.  The next semester, I followed up with all A’s and a B. After 5th grade, my folks decided to pull the plug, because they had a mortgage to pay, and I was living in a cardboard palace. Unfortunately, my grades plummeted too.  Funny how that works, huh?

The end of the semester was magical for me.  $80 and ready to shop.  I spent hours (okay…DAYS) determining what I wanted to get.  With my cash, and list ready, my folks drove me to the shop, and I started off my list.  “I’ll take 2 packs of 1982 fleer, 3 packs of 1989 Upper Deck, 10 1989 Score, 15 1989 Fleer…..”

“Boy, it looks like it is Christmas for him!” Mike, the dealer mentioned to my folks.

Indeed, it was!

I stockpiled these packs.  I didn’t run home.  Instead, I put them in a drawer and just savored them. I would arrange them, mix them up, open the drawer several times to look at them, display them as if it were my own card shop, etc.

The time came to hunker down and bust them all.  I was saddened by the fact that I would no longer have anymore packs to open, but it was enjoyable.  No Griffey rookies or Ripken rookies to my recollection, but I do remember the Christmasesque feel to it all.  The anticipation – the wonder of what could be in them, and the upcoming joy of opening them all.

Fast forward 20+ years later, I am sitting on well over 500 boxes of new sealed cards.  I have traded, sold and opened over 80 of them this past month, and it has been awesome!!!  Here is an update of some of the happenings:

– Opened some by myself, and several packs with my family
– Sold boxes and pack lots both locally and online
– Traded locally and online
– Sold boxes in such as way that I open for the buyer through you tube, they watch the bust, and tell me which cards to ship

Here are some vintage PSA beauties I have traded for:

These are already spoken for though so sorry – they aren’t available anymore!

One particularly successful venture has been the small flat rate boxes of packs I have been selling.  On ebay, they are $33 shipped, but if you want one here, I can do $30 shipped.  Each box comes with 25 unopened packs from various mixed products.  So far, everyone has been giving them rave reviews.

The most fun I would say is when someone buys a box and I open it for them via youtube.  I generally sell the boxes for cheap, open online and they pick 5 cards per box that they want.  This keeps costs for shipping down for the buyer, cuts down on unwanted cards for them, and gives me the excitement of opening.  Plus, it is really fun for those to view the packs being opened on the web!

On another note, if you have been following me for a while, you know I am a Jose Canseco fan.  I sold my collection and am now rebuilding.  Over the past few days, I have done with my existing collection what I never did to my old collection:  I marked them in a checklist and put them ALL in holders!  My current count is 500 different Canseco.  Clearly less than what I had, but I currently have some many cooler Canseco cards than my old collection had.

I had some fire under me to finish up this check list because the baseball card show is just around the corner.  For the first time in forever, I will be looking at adding some items to my personal collection, instead of just to resell!  If you have any rarer Canseco, please let me know!  I am also putting together the 2011 Topps diamond legends silver set if you have any 🙂