admin, Author at Tan Man Baseball Fan

Selling Canseco – Day One

To say the first 24 hours after "going public" with the information has been a whirlwind would be an understatement. I ended up spending from Saturday evening all the way until late last night, fielding questions and taking orders. Here is one of my favorite requests: ThoseBackPages wrote me saying he wanted to purchase my 1986 Donruss Highlights PSA 10, but on one condition. I had to sign it directly on the case. On the front. In green. Here it is! Topps sketch artist Mike James reached out saying the following, which I got a kick out of: Out of

Exit Interview: I’m Retiring from Collecting Canseco and Selling Out

To say a lot has transpired over the past couple of weeks would be a vast understatement. To make a long story short, (trust me, the long story is below!) 1) I have decided to quit collecting Jose Canseco baseball cards (Video of the explanation is below). 2) I'm selling my collection. 3) I'm writing a book about my hobby experiences. Please let me know if you are interested in reading it! While I fully understand most of you will not care a lick about this, I also know some folks out there would like to know why. Plus, I feel

When Baseball Cards became Transformers

Transformers! Robots in disguise! Weren't transformers the coolest? I loved them. I never caught on with the new movies, but man let me tell you - the toys were awesome. Perhaps that is one of the reasons why these next baseball cards I'm about to show are so interesting to me. My latest wax excursion has been so, so, SO much more about the packs, boxes and displays, than the cards themselves. This next haul really takes the cake for me. I grabbed a 1986, 1987 and 1989 Donruss counter top display case. I don't know why I hadn't seen these

Worthless, Yet Priceless

I think we all have a tendency to get caught up in searching out the knobs, barrels, patches, etc. and forget to look back at why most of us are in this hobby to begin with: To relive the memories of our childhood. In looking at some auctions, I found a nice pairing that was absolutely dripping with nostalgia for me: These two were singled out of my beloved 1989 Donruss set for having the cool cursive font on the front. On one side of the spectrum, it shows baseball's bad boy who, at the time, was the best player

1987 Topps and the Hospital

If you are a child of the 80's, you know what 1987 Topps is. It was absolutely loaded with key rookies, but it was produced in such high numbers, I probably don't have enough space here to write out all of the zeroes. You may have heard that my dad has been in and out of the hospital for the past half year. It has been very tough on us all, but no one can really understand what he has been through except for him. Last night, I decided to take the family to visit him and have a little family fun:

1985 Donruss Wax Box From a Sealed Case

Key rookies in 1985 Donruss - Roger Clemens, Kirby Puckett, Orel Hershiser I don't know what it was, but one day I started reminiscing about wax. This led me to do some research on wax boxes. Much like PSA/BGS can magically transform something of relatively little value (like ... well ... ANY 80's key cards) and gives them value simply by assigning a numerical grade to them. This helps buys to know they have a beautiful example ... no ... specimen of something they may have treasured as a kid. While I'm not huge on graded cards, I am huge on beautiful

Bad News Bears & Larry Doby Customs Created!

I'd love to be able to write volumes on these, but I figured I'd keep this short and sweet :) Fun fact! I was actually named after a character in the Bad News Bears. First, I took this: and made this (A negro league card!) Front: Back: Then, I took this Walter Matthau signed index card: and created this: Back: Here is a video of me showing them off :)

Tanner is Growing Wax Stache … errr … Stash!

Last year, my wife heavily hinted that the waxed stache needed to go, so I've decided grow another wax stash instead ... wax boxes that were released during my childhood. I'll be periodically posting my newest pickups with memories, perhaps some customs based upon that specific year, video reviews, etc. It should be good fun and I hope you enjoy going down memory lane with me! Why am I doing this? When I began collecting again as an adult, I (like many here) wanted to rekindle that childhood spark of collecting. I did this by attempting to assemble a run of

One Year Older – My Birthday Post

Today I turn 38. For those of you who are adults, you probably remember growing up thinking MAN! There are people my age playing major league baseball now! A decade further, you think DANG! This rookie crop is a DECADE younger than I am! 10 years later, you desperately look up and down the active rosters to see ANY familiar name from when you were younger. Thank you for still being around, Bartolo Colon. Ken Griffey Jr., Chipper Jones, Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez, Frank Thomas ... all are long gone. At 38, not only is that one step closer to 40; it