Using Baseball Cards as Memory Markers

Many of my childhood memories are attached to baseball cards.  I remember one late morning in 1989 going to the house my parents just bought.  We were about to move, and while I don't remember much about that day, I do remember being in the passenger seat with a box of 1989 Topps, and a handful of packs from the movie Eight Men Out.  I was on cloud nine - it is one of my earliest memories being happy.  I remember sitting at the table later that day opening it with my uncle watching the progress.  My gosh, how I

The Incredible Story of 2010 Upper Deck Exquisite

On October 6, 2001, Jose Canseco played his last game in the majors, wrapping up an injury riddled career at the age of 37, while racking up several awards:  Rookie of the Year, 4 Silver Sluggers, 6 All Star Game appearances, 2 World Series rings, and MVP. During his playing career, collectors only had a couple options for picking up a game used patch card of his, as these types of cards were new to the hobby.  Over the next few years after he was out of baseball, companies really started ramping things up, and Canseco collectors were treated to

What is a Supercollector?

Here is a link to my podcast episode regarding this article if you'd rather listen instead of read! Some spell supercollector as one word, others spell it as super collector - no matter which was you use it, it is a fascinating subject. Part of the text below has been taken from my book Confessions of a Baseball Card Addict, but most of it is new content. ANATOMY OF A SUPERCOLLECTOR Me, back in 2015 as a supercollector with eleventy billion Canseco cards I find tremendous enjoyment and satisfaction in having a small collection of cards that I

I Created a Custom Fingerprint Jose Canseco Baseball Card

I've been wanting to do this for YEARS! Several months ago, a buddy of mine picked up a couple baseballs from Carlos, one of Jose's closest friends (a friend of mine as well). Much to my excitement, they had a a fingerprint on them in green ink of the 40-40 man. I've had the baseballs for several months now, and finally got around to creating it. Here is what it looks like along with the ball I haven't done anything yet with!

134 Year Old Treasure Hunt Yields an Exciting Discovery!

Here is a link to the audio from my podcast if you'd like to listen instead, though I do hope you read the article and check out the pictures! https://anchor.fm/tan-man-baseball-fan/episodes/My-134-Year-Old-Discovery-e13sbv8 What I stumbled upon feels like the baseball card version of the Da Vinci Code and Indiana Jones all wrapped up into one. Everyone loves a good treasure hunting mystery, and I guess that's why I love baseball card collecting so much.  As a 9 year old, nothing would excite me more than when mom & dad would bring me home a pack of 1989 Donruss or take me to