Watch me Create a Bryce Harper Bowman Chrome Right Before Your Very Eyes!

I had a TON of fun doing this and hope you all enjoy it as well.  My friend asked how plates of only 4 colors could be used to create such beautiful full color cards, and I thought I'd run through it on photoshop.  Check the video below! Basically, here are the cliff's notes: I took all the plates I picked up ... and scanned them into photoshop and set each layer to "darken". Merging them is a fun mess How can this ever create something cool? All lined up and flipped around! With a chrome border I really

Watch me play Take Me Out to the Ballgame on Guitar

I've been having fun playing guitar lately and just learned one of the greatest songs ever.  :)

What is the Value of the 1/1 Stamp?

In 1991, Topps ran the first (known to me) buyback program.  To celebrate 40 years, they randomly inserted one of every card from 1957 to 1990 in packs of 1991 Topps.  (The others were redemptions, if I recall correctly.) Kids and adults alike were VERY excited to get their hands on packs, boxes and cases to join the treasure hunt.  The problem?  It has been said that the buybacks fell about 1 per 24 cases, unbeknownst to us back when they came out.  Imagine opening nearly 500 boxes of 1991 Topps, and your prize is this: (Note: Nick Esasky is my

Full Jose Canseco Topps Rookie Cup Rainbow Set Complete!

It took 2 years, but I finally completed it! 2016 Topps 65th Anniversary 1987 Rookie Cup    Shown below are the only 1/1 rookie cup autographs made (so far, that is - just wait until this time in 3 years and there will probably be 20 more  ) Here they are shown with the autographed 1/1 in the middle: The last card that came in was the yellow. I ran a poll on what the least liked plate was, and overwhelmingly it was yellow. I can honestly say I was much more excited about the yellow coming in than the regular 1/1 

Collecting Milestone Achieved!

As I found out a couple years ago, March 12th marks the anniversary of collecting.  I found an old journal from elementary school at my parent's house that said as much: Since today marks the 29th anniversary of when I discovered my love for cardboard, I thought it would be a good time to show off my latest collecting milestone: It is important to note that I didn't REALLY start on my Canseco collection until 2014, so the below is the result of four years of laser focus - much of this, I can thank many of you for pointing me in

2017 Leaf Q Memorabilia Autographs Jose Canseco Rainbow Complete!

I've talked a lot about how impressed I've been with 2017 Leaf Q over the past few months.  For Jose Canseco, they come in three flavors: 2015 Flashback - My favorite by far - simply perfect. Patch Perfect - Nice large patches, tons of beautiful foil, but no picture. Memorabilia Autographs - Nice large swatches with on card autographs and lots of beautiful foil, but no patches. Months before the release, a friend texted me some pictures of Canseco signing several of these before anyone else had ever seen them, and I instantly fell in love. Those are beautiful, but

1999 Skybox Premium Star Rubies Extreme Bankruptcy Archive Jose Canseco

1999 Skybox Premium Star Rubies Extreme Bankruptcy Archive About 2 1/2 years ago, a slew of '99 Skybox Premium Star Rubies Extreme blank back cards hit eBay.  When Canseco came up, I wasn't quick enough to grab it.  I was preoccupied with getting an A&G Boxloader auto #/15 and missed the SRE. Limited to just 50 serial numbered copies, I hadn't seen another go up for sale, let alone a blank back version.  A little over a year later, this card was part of a much larger deal I did with another supercollector. The beauty of this card is definitely something to behold,

Fun Customs with some Jeter Signatures & a Replica Jersey

I'm not gonna lie, 2018 has been hard so far. On Christmas Eve, my dad was rushed to the hospital and literally JUST got out a little over a week ago. Through physical therapy, he is getting stronger, but it was a rough several weeks to start of 2018 for both him and my mom.  I will definitely say this cup is half full though, as it could have been much worse!  We are thankful he is back at home, finally. Unfortunately, things didn't go that way for our dog Dewey.  In the midst of a very tumultuous season in

When a Memory Becomes a Card

A few days ago, I posted the question to "Describe your dream card that doesn't exist" in various places on the Internet.  I received hundreds of responses - here are a few of them: A sweet spot auto card of Nolan Ryan on a game used baseball from one of his no-hitters Roger Clemens / Mike Piazza dual card with a bat piece 1954 Topps Mickey Mantle Some of the responses were ... interesting.  For instance, this one by dbackschamp2001: I cannot say if this is crazy or brilliant, but I do hope dbackschamp2001 gets the help he clearly needs. To use all these pieces

2017: My Year in Review of Customs, Collection Additions & Events

As 2017 winds down, I wanted to do a review on my collection, customs created and events having to do with this hobby to document the entire year.  2017 was huge for my collection - over 600 cards have been added, over 45 articles have been written and several of my favorite customs have been created.  When all is said and done, I am left with the following list of notable pickups, events & customs.  I have swung and missed on a number of opportunities, but you miss 100% of the pitches you don't swing at, right?  This article isn't about