admin, Author at Tan Man Baseball Fan

My Collection Just got Personal

As you read this, there are probably millions of online transactions happening around the globe. Currently, I have cards incoming from Vermont, North Dakota, Florida, Mississippi, Indiana and New Jersey. These cards are from people I have known for a while, people I have just met or simply people selling cards from Ebay. They all have one thing in common though: None of it would have been possible without the use of the Internet. While online transactions are now as commonplace as air-conditioned houses, it hasn't always been like this. When I first started collecting in the late 80's, the

Hunting a Card that Doesn’t Exist

When I first started actively looking for, and buying cards for my PC, I wasn't exactly a big spender. Take this card, for example. I had never seen this card ... ever. In all my 26 years of collecting. It was a blank back and up for sale for $4, I believe, and shipping was $3 if I recall correctly. I wasn't too keen on spending $7 on a card like this, so I did what anyone would do in my situation. I asked the buyer if he would be willing to do $5 including shipping for this card. EPIC

My First Break, The National and Brian Gray

My wife and son have been gone on their mission trip since Thursday afternoon, and I am stuck here all by my lonesome - well, aside from our 2 dogs who are so depressed about their departure, that they don't acknowledge that I'm still here. (Seriously, dogs - the least you can do is come downstairs when I walk in the door!) This morning, I opted to not let my inner uber-lazy-tv-watching bachelor win and actually got out to do something. One thing I have been wanting to do is to actually physically see my Beckett on the news stands

Card Revived from the Trash Heap

During my collecting journey, I've made some pretty good friendships with others. Two of them are very close to Canseco. One of them pitches to him before games to warm him up and in home run derbies. At Jose's 51st birthday party, he mentioned the poker cards I made him. Canseco said "Oh yeah, Tanner made these for me - I love them - they are my favorite!" To hear that your favorite player say something like that about what you made for him AND remember your name (oh yeah, my name is on the back of the cards) -

Garage Sale Results for my Wife and Son’s Mission Trip!

I posted this on the forums as a final post to the thread I started showing my moustache / autograph card I was selling for the mission trip. I know this doesn't have much to do with baseball, but wanted to post it on my blog as well ... My wife and son leave for their trip on Thursday, so I thought I'd just give an update on the whole money raising part. I had about 6 people buy the mini blue/red autographs of me, which was very nice of them. I even had 2 people donate some money from

Custom Time with a Babe Ruth Bat

Since taking apart several 1 of 1's at the requests of their owners to create something truly unique - and posting them - I have had a number of critics. While several have said they like what I came up with more than what the card companies created, many just thought it was "wrong" to do...regardless of how nice they turned out. One thing that has come out of this whole ordeal is apparently what many of the card companies have been putting out simply are not enough to keep people satisfied. I have had a lot of interest in

Latest Canseco Pickup!

About 16 years ago, you may recall Fleer putting out a set by the name of Brilliants. The base cards feature a chrome mirror like finish, and had a very premium look by itself. Very classy looking card. I remember seeing them from time to time whenever I would go through huge collections I purchased, and would find a Canseco. I would be ecstatic because it was so nice looking! Later on down the road, when I got more serious into my PC, I sought out the parallels as well. They had a blue version, which was insanely beautiful -

When baseball cards aren’t baseball cards + Custom Rip Card Reveal

I remember having an early interest with Allen & Ginter back several years ago. I was still getting over the fact that boxes of cards were significantly higher than the $15 I was used to as a child. I was very intrigued by the pack pulled autographs and relic cards. So much in fact, that I was willing to drop $80 on a box of A&G. I was disappointed. I had been told that there would be not one ... not two ... but THREE "hits" (either game used cards or autographs) in the box. Silly me ... I thought they were talking about

Forget the Moustache Card … How about a FINGER Card?

When Canseco shot himself in the finger, and said he may try to sell it on Ebay, I had a TON of people write me saying I should reach out to obtain his missing digit and make a card out of it. A week or 2 ago, as a fun promotional item, Jose played on an independent baseball team and they gave out foam hands missing part of the middle finger. I was able to pick one up that was signed ... I love it! With exciting as this is, nothing ... and I mean NOTHING compares to what I

The Contest Winner Is ….

So, it looks like we have a winner! Before I reveal the winner, I wanted to go through some facts. This contest was run on Blowout, Beckett, Freedom Cardboard, Sports Card Forum, Net54Baseball, my blog and facebook. Out of hundreds of replies, I found that the responses varied quite a bit. Someone guessed $0, and someone guessed $3,000. Here is a statistical breakdown: 6% said under $100 22% said between $101-250 37% said between $251-400 22% said between $400-600 6% said $601 and over 3% said this whole thing was narcisisstic/creepy 2% said they thought someone would plant my moustache

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