What is your favorite product of 2015?

I think there have been between 40-50 different releases this year. I laugh about all the people people who cited the reason they left the hobby int he early 90's because the # of releases got out of hand :) So what is your favorite release so far? There are STILL about 6 products to be released in the next 20 days before '16, but I'm curious to see what YOUR favorite(s) have been so far.

Canseco Collection Video – Volume 2

I did another video of some of my Canseco collection ... check it out!

My Therapy

The past several months of work have been particularly frustrating.  From server issues, to programmer problems, to hackers, and more.  I'm thankful I have baseball cards and writing as an outlet to relieve the stress.  My wife, on the other hand, had other ideas this week. She decided that she wanted to go to the gun range.  With as much as I don't want to admit it, I've never fired a gun before, so we opted to take an hour lesson to get a handle on shooting and gun safety before buying one.  Our instructor looked and sounded like a

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.