I recently picked up the original Topps Vault internal file/contract record for Jose Canseco, and underneath a later sheet stapled over the top is something very intriguing.

The earliest entry appears to read:

SIGNED: 10/14/82
TERM: 5 YRS. PYMT
CHECK #: 23072
AMOUNT: $5.00

There’s also a 9-29 date associated with the payment, all recorded via typewriter.

Canseco had only turned 18 years old on July 2, 1982, meaning this paperwork appears to date from just a few months after his 18th birthday – years before he became a household name.

And then there’s that $5.

If I’m interpreting the notation correctly, Topps appears to have made a $5 payment connected to a five-year term. In other words…essentially $1 per year.

And those five years would take you from 1982 through 1986 – the year Canseco’s major rookie cards arrived.

That is kind of incredible to think about.

Before the Bash Brothers. Before 40/40. Before the MVP. Before the home runs, steroids, books, controversies and everything else that eventually made Jose Canseco one of the most recognizable names of his generation…Jose was signed for a buck a year. 

And yes – naturally I had to put a five-dollar bill in the photo.   Oh, and the back has the Topps Vault hologram + a handwritten notation about his 1994 issue.  Presumably Topps did away with these after ’94 and went to a computer system. 

A fun little fact about this also – this originally sold on eBay in 2010.  A collecting buddy Colin picked it up, and sold it to me circa 2015.  I sold it back to him 2019ish, and just got it back.  Colin, if you are reading, it looks like this will find its way back to you 2033ish!