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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

You might have a 1/1 in your collection, but do you have a 1/1/1/1 ?

Yeah, 1/1's are rare. They are great and what many collectors dream about. I always drool over them for sure. As I am sitting at about 143 of them right now, I have to say that I don't do a double take nearly as much as I used to when I didn't have any. When someone (sadly, I can't recall the user) told me of an Archives buyback 1/1 that was posted on a forum months ago, I was excited. I reached out to the user HillbillyCletus and we exchanged texts. There was something different about this 1/1 though, which

An Unknown Holy Grail has Landed

If I'm being honest, I'd have to say that the Christmas season and new years just didn't seem "festive". It may have been the weather (it has been getting up past 80 degrees here at times), but I'm not quite sure exactly what it was. To help it to feel more like winter, we agreed to play broom hockey with my friend's church. I decided to facebook it: "Broom Hockey at Midnight" A lot of people had a blast making fun of me, because apparently there is no such thing as "broom hockey". It is "broom ball". :/ A good

ESPN Tweeted My Link!

So 2 nights ago, Darren Rovell of ESPN tweeted out my website... So, this is what happened with the traffic: Cool stuff! Also, as a thank you to Darren for tweeting out my link, I created a digital edition card for him commemorating his 89 Fleer Rick Face story. (Black box version used for obvious reasons!) Oh, and finally, to commemorate Rogue One Day, a family pic w/ticket relic:

Custom Nameplate Set for YOUR Family!

I've been asked about this before, so here it is! If you are interested in having a custom nameplate set of cards for your last name / your child's name / etc. I'm now offering this as a service! I've done one set before, and that was of Canseco (of course). Here is one close up: And the entire set ... Last but not least, the entire write up: https://tanmanbaseballfan.com/2016/07/two-years-making.html So, here is how it will work! You pick out the jersey colors, tell me the name and send me a picture of who you want this to be for.

Latest Happenings

Ladies and Gentlemen, I've made it. Yours truly has been enshrined into the emoticon hall of fame at the largest sports card collecting community, Blowout Cards!  I ... errrr ... my twin ... is now the "Editor in Chief". I'm not saying that BOuschi and myself are one in the same; I'm just saying that no one has ever seen us in the same room together before.  ;) In addition to this, if you wanted to type in :bouschi: when making a thread at BO, the mug you see above shows up. In other news, I've picked up some 10x14

I Created a New Trading Card Product Line!

Let me see a show of hands.  How many of you think that it is absolute madness at how many types of cards have been released this past year?  The card release calendar shows TONS of them ... not to mention the online only and store specific cards out there. Well, the card market is about to get one more, though case breakers will not have an interest in this one. I realize that there is a big risk in coming out with a new card product.  Whether they have succeeded or crashed and burned, generally all are met with

Saving the Best (and most important) for Last

For those of you who don't know, I ran a contest a few months back as a way to say thank you to the online card collecting community. Over 200 posts were made in my contest spanning over three forums I post in. The participation was great!  I truly enjoyed it. I wanted the winner of the contest to really be happy.  Instead of choosing one winner, I chose nine. I have posted some on here already, but since I finally wrapped up the last one, I'll show everything here in one post, with the last (and best) for the