The Bridge Between Collecting Art and Baseball Cards

If your collecting career was alive and well during the 1980's, you were treated to finding your favorite players packaged with all sorts of things.  From cookies and breads to sausage and dog food, they were everywhere.  Unless they were Broders, you were very familiar with the airbrushed hat, not unlike what Panini and Leaf have to do these days.  Companies did a great job understanding what their consumers liked, and in the 80's, it was baseball cards. Cards being inserted into bread is now a thing of the past.  Card companies have done a number of things differently from

Customs with Premium Relics

This past week has been quite eventful!  I was asked to write my second article for Sports Collectors Daily.  I wrote about how to break down and sell a large collection of cards before your wife kills you.  (Link here to my articles on SCD:  http://www.sportscollectorsdaily.com/author/tanner-jones/ ) I was also asked to play a part in a commercial!  The commercial was for an entry in Crash the Super Bowl for Doritos. I wrote about it and put it in some "Off Topic" forums, but figured I'd post it in this blog posting as well. You can check it out here: 

I’m in a Doritos Commercial!

I'm in a Doritos commercial! It is for an entry for the "Doritos Crash the Super Bowl" contest. Please vote 5 stars on it!  You can click the link below to view and vote.  No login is required! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fk-CzhGo8J4 This whole thing was put together by the talented Jeff Farmer.  You can see his website at http://jeffreyrfarmer.com

My Jose Canseco Collection in Videos & Pictures: Volume One – TEK

I'm not sure if this happens to you or not, but quite possibly the highest point for me in picking up a new card for my collection online is NOT actually receiving the card. The highest point happens for me, when I have won it. If someone posts it up as a buy it now or best offer, you have the option to just get it over with, and click the BIN button, potentially overpaying a bit. You also have the option of OBO'ing it and running the risk of someone else grabbing it right from under your nose. The

The Collectability of Oddballs, Variations, Fakes & Customs

My memories from when I was 12 and younger are few & far between (or is it far & few between?...I'm gonna stick with the first one.) Many of my memories are marked with things that have to do with baseball and baseball cards. Why? because ... (Pssst....baseball cards. Baseball cards measure 2.5x3.5") Fewer still, are the memories that don't have anything to do with baseball. One such memory is with my childhood friend David. I went with his family up into the mountains, and we went wading into the crystal clear water of a brook/river of some sort. I

Best Halloween Ever

Halloween is not our favorite holiday.  It does boast my son's favorite color though:  Orange.  I kept wondering how cool it would have been if the card companies from the 80's and 90's made halloween colored variations of cards.  Perhaps they wouldn't have been all that boring.  I decided to cook up a few myself. Like this 1988 Donruss Halloween version: Oh yeah, that is just 1988 Donruss Baseball's Best.  :/ Well, what about if we made 1990 Score look more Halloweeny?   BAH!  They already did that with 1990 Score Rookie & Traded.  (Which, by the way is one of

1991 Topps: The $100 Card, Glowing Backs & More

For many of us, our collecting careers were born in the junk wax era - that sweet spot of 1988 to 1992.  It is from this time period which all other collecting periods are measured, and unfairly so.  "The hobby isn't like what it was." everyone cries out, remembering when card shops were found at every corner, and packs of cards could be purchased from doctor's offices to petting zoos. Why do so many people say these cards are better used as firewood than anything else?  The answer is simple:  the card companies simply kept the presses running ... FOREVER.

Is this the future of collecting?

In the late 1990's, I was at a Blockbuster music store, looking for some CD's.  As I looked around at all the listening stations, I thought to myself ... "Just wait.  Soon, we will be able to make our own CD's filled with only the songs we want." I never saw that prophecy fulfilled ... until about 4 weeks ago.  My family and I walked into a christian book store, and believe it or not, there was a station to allow you to add the songs you wanted all onto one CD!  While they just might be about 10 years

Epic Pete Rose Photobomb

An epic Pete Rose photo bomb has been the hit of the internet with all kinds of epic memes being pushed out.  I thought I'd join in on the fun and let you all jump in as well. The original (which, btw ... Petey saved CJ here from embarrassment ... dude is totally wearing lipstick and no one has caught that.) Here are some fun ones that others made: I figured I'd jump in as well. Remember the Topps Jeter card that had cameos of Mantle & Bush? Have you ever seen this version? Or the MLK speech ... He

1993 SP vs. 2015 Tek

What a difference 22 years makes, huh?  1993 was the tail end of the junk wax era.  Card companies started slowing down the presses, and collectors started to find some premium cards were not as readily available as the typical 50 cent packs offered at grocery stores. While some cards from the late 80's and early 90's were produced in mass quantities to the tune of millions ... PER CARD, some were not.  1993 SP, for example.  A beautiful set highly sought after - even to this day by collectors, and namely due to Derek Jeter's rookie.  The 1993 SP