Story time Tuesday! Ahhh, that first time I saw a Topps buyback! It was, I believe, around the end of 2015 ... 1988 Topps, a little off center. I was AMPED! Then another popped. Then another. Then another. About a week into the release, it was clear that buybacks were no longer "rare". Topps was grabbing piles of base cards, having players sign them, while they stamped and slabbed them. At the end of my supercollecting journey, I amassed 115 different Topps Archives Signature Series Canseco cards ... MANY of them being numbered to 5 or less. When I sold out,

When I came back to the hobby about 15 years ago, like most, I set out to capture the cards of my youth.  I completely missed the 90s insert & parallel craze ... in its entirety.  Eventually, I was seduced by game used cards, and ultimately ended up becoming a pseudo dealer.  Over the next several years, I bought & sold cardboard of all types, while becoming educated on the various different types that were created during my hiatus. In 2013, I picked up a 90's collection, and like all other collections, I split it up and sold them.  Then

So, today, May 9th, I turn 40.  I'm not sure what's harder to believe - my age, or that in a week, I am going to have a 1 year old!  One thing remains the same, though:  My lover for baseball cards! It has been quite a while since I've had a meaningful Jose Canseco mailday.  This one, my friends, is a doozy!  It consisted of 11 cards total, but I will only show three here, so I don't drone on.  I would like to spend some time on each to talk about their meaningfulness to me. 2005 SP Legendary

Last year, I was on a kick to discover various parts of the hobby, one of which included PSA graded rookies of the newer guys.  On April 8th, 2019, I got in a card that I just couldn't get out of my head:  A 2011 Topps Update Mike Trout Diamond Anniversary PSA 10.  Like many, I have several "I wish I didn't sell" Mike Trout horror stories, and worried I was buying at its peak, but thought it still had quite a bit of room to grow - I was right! Eventually, I sold all my modern PSA stuff, except

Whenever a prototype from the junk wax era pops up, it is huge news.  People *LOVE* new takes on cards from their childhood, and this one is no exception. A little over three years ago, I wrote about a 1991 Upper Deck Chrome prototype (I wrote a HUGE article - it is mentioned at the bottom) and how I was able to get my hands on one.  Why reinvent the wheel?  I'll go ahead and just repost what I wrote there, here, from January 2017 ... and then pick up where I left off afterward: ================ One of the most innovative

On the Blowout forums, someone made a post asking about what card brings you joy.  I LOVE this topic - while the entire hobby brings me joy, I thought I'd put a spotlight on one card in particular. Rather than gush about a Canseco card, I wanted to show my most meaningful non Canseco. As a kid, I read a book called Billy Sunday: Baseball Preacher. I remember nothing about the book itself, but as someone who loves both Jesus and baseball, this clicked with me. The cover of the book had a mock 1956 Topps card if I recall