1996 Fleer Gold & Silver Variations

I have been able to secure a number of these! If you are interested in what I have, click here. Baseball cards of the mid 1990s are characterized by their loud and bright colors.  Some would call them eye sores, while others are happy to have designs that so richly represent that time period.  In 1996, Fleer took a step back and offered a clean look, relying heavily upon quality photography, and then stamping the print in gold foil. To take things a step further (back), they printed their cards on cardboard with the texture of the back of a

Analyzing the Peaks and Valleys of Collecting

If you are a player or team collector, it is my hope you can identify with this.  Heck, you could probably copy/paste this in Word and do a find/replace of my guy with yours and it would still be applicable. I wanted to take little time this evening and muse about the peaks and valleys of collecting.  It has so many highs and lows.  It consists of friends, enemies and frenemies.  You win a new "trophy" card, and show it off for all to see, or you can spend the rest of the evening pining about the card you missed

The Tri-Star Show, Star Wars and … Big Bird?

I have taken close to a two year hiatus from going to the card show.  The past few times, I simply didn't have any luck finding some good lots to wheel & deal, so I didn't feel much of a pull to go.  When Tri-Star rolled into town this past weekend, I decided on a whim to take the hike up there with my man-child in tow.  Things are different now: My son is 2 feet taller I wasn't in line before they opened I only went one day, instead of three I didn't have a rolling suitcase to carry

Filling a Void

As a focused card collector, you probably appreciate checklists.  You might actually live and die by them.  It gives you something to shoot for - there is a tangible finish line, so to speak.  With the invention of 1/1's and crazy amounts of parallels, that finish line has become all but a mirage, like an oasis in a desert.  As collectors, what are we to do?  Well, you can go one of two ways. 1) Self-imposed limits - Since having 100% of the cards of a player or team is impossible now, I've seen many people say they will ONLY