Catch Me on Television! + My Favorite Customs so Far

This past month was CRAZY busy, and it doesn't look like it is going to let up anytime soon!  Youth group get togethers at our house, my son's 14th birthday party sleepover (re-scheduled due to him being sick) a father-son retreat (cancelled due to lack of sign-ups), Halloween, World Series, meetings, my son getting baptized, paintball party, a marriage conference and our 15th anniversary, there doesn't look to be much downtime in the near future. In doing some of these things, I figured why not do custom relic cards?  Imagine all of the custom relic cards we could all have

Digital Download Cards Sell for HUNDREDS of Dollars

"Excuse me sir, what are you doing?" I was caught red-handed. A well dressed young man of about 20 years was looking over my shoulder as I was admiring my collection of baseball cards from my website on my phone while waiting for my cinnamon crunch bagel at Panera.  Yeah, I'm REAL cool.  All kinds of people at the restaurant on their phones doing millennial things - texting, facebooking, tweeting.  And me?  I'm looking at pictures of my baseball cards.  Slowing going through my favorite patch cards, then swiping feverishly through a large rainbow to get a fun effect of

Crossovers on Canvas

For the longest time, I have been dreaming up ideas about doing some customs with a much more artsyfeel to them.  I won't make this too terribly long, but I was inspired to start playing around with some ideas today. The first one I decided to play with was a 1989 Score card.  I have childhood memories of this card - primarily when I had to "settle" for it since the card shop didn't have the new 1989 Topps card I wanted.  Dad griped at me for complaining, so I got the Score card, and grew to love it. The

A Purrrfect, Cat-tastic Custom

One of my contest winners had a unique request.  This next card is something that I was on the fence about, and my wife said it must be included. So, here it is. The Big Cat! And I'm not talking about Andres Galarraga, either! I'm talking about 15 pounds of feline fury. I introduce to you: ECHO. Echo is Glen87's pet beloved by his entire family - especially his daughter. An interesting point on this is that both Echo and Glen's daughter were characters in a fairly well known novel "Three Can Keep a Secret". If you follow me on

Fleer Paper Prototype Turns into a REAL Card

So, I ended up going forward with a new project that I have been dreaming about for a LONG time. Making these paper proofs REAL cards. Here is the first one I did, since I don't know when I'll be able to get to the others: Here is the paper proof prototype I worked from: I had to redo a bunch of the graphics, but came up with this: Shows the thickness and the glossiness. Note the mention of "sleeve patch" instead of "Game-Worn Jersey". I changed it because Canseco wore the jersey this patch was on, but not when

There’s Something about Wood

I've got to be honest with you, I'm not sure where to start! As if you couldn't tell by my writing, sometimes my hobbies take up way too much space in my brain. I don't have a "chill" button. It is either FULL SPEED or NOT AT ALL. I guess I'll start at the beginning. This has been an action packed week for the hobby side of my life.  To start off, fellow supercollector AJ and I made yet ANOTHER huge, massive trade.  It involved a lot of blood sweat and tears, but after about a week, we hammered a

Latest Contest Winner…

Congratulations to everyone who has survived this week and made it to the weekend! The next to last contest winner is now wrapped up, so we have one more to go, though I'm not sure when that will be. Before I do the reveal, I figured I'd show off a fun project that was very challenging to get the look right ... T206 style. Dboneesq is putting together the T206 New York set. Yes, a Bronx Bombers collector before they were the Yankees. They were actually the Highlanders. The twist? He is a Mantle fan. The problem? The Mick was

When 756 Cards Just Isn’t Enough

You know you have a problem when you are chasing the entire set of 2007 Topps Barry Bonds Home Run History.  756 cards of stressful, anxious goodness.  The thought of doing something like that growing up would have given me great dreams and horrible nightmares!  Imagine trying to complete an entire set of 1989 Topps, but instead of 99% of the cards being commons, they are all of the best player in the world. You know you REALLY have a problem when 756 cards simply is not enough.  I was approached by someone saying it bothered them that there weren't

Customs with a Home Run Game Used Bat & Ball

This week has been stuffed to the gills with making customs for people who won my customs contest & customs just for fun for my own collection.  While it has taken a long time and kept me busy, it sure has been fun. I was kind of bummed about Topps not making a NOW card as a throwback of Canseco, so I made my own. After I did that, I thought HEY!  What not do one of Tim Tebow on the Mets? and what about Ginny Baker from the new show Pitch? As if that weren't exciting enough, why not

When Supercollectors Trade

Supercollectors are an interesting breed. For us, buying a card is easy.  Finding a card is hard, and trading with another supercollector is extremely hard.  Why? Because you generally have the same cards, and if you don't, that means the card is EXTREMELY rare, and you likely will not want to part with it. That is what makes my latest deal with AJ blog-worthy.  We both knew we had cards each other wanted.  He initiated the conversation, and brought up this card that I had picked up a few months back: This is from the famous Wheeler Collection!  I don't