Baseball Card Articles Archives - Tan Man Baseball Fan

I’ve Acquired the ENTIRE 1919-21 W514 Complete Set – Babe Ruth, Shoeless Joe Jackson, Black Sox Set & Customs!

The 1919-21 W514 issue is a set of cards that has always intrigued me. There are a number of key cards, and fantastic stories! Being that the set is now 100+ years old, it also feels like history. Created right after World War 1, the simplistic artwork and low quality card stock serve as reminders of America dealing with the aftermath of WW1. Due to their meteoric rise in price recently, I sold my W514 Shoeless Joe Jackson and Babe Ruth. The money was great, but I was sad to see them go. I caught wind of an auction house

The Diamond Cutting Stage – Customs, Pickups, and More!

It has been a while since I've written, so I figured I'd write a little bit about what I've been up to! First, here are some customs I created: This Back to the Future jumbo was created using a signed index card from Lea Thompson. Here is a video showing it (along with Footloose and Roberto Clemente customs). A Braves fan reached out to me with a number of signed baseballs from his collection that he wanted cards made out of. A UFC fan reached out to me with a fight glove from Chris "Lights Out" Lytle. Here

A Boy and His Collection – A Parable

Here is a parable that I wrote! I draw this partially from personal experience, but think and hope you all can connect with this too. Listen to the audio version here! Let me tell you a story of a little boy who went exploring with his family in the woods. Once upon a time, a family took a trip to go hiking in the woods. They happened upon a stream of cold, crystal clear water. The little boy was fascinated by the shallow stream, and crouched down to get a better look at the bed of the stream. What he

Custom Card Tutorial and Valentines Day Contest!

For YEARS, I've had people ask if I have a custom card making tutorial available, and I've always said "it's on the list". Everytime someone asks for pointers, I try to answer questions, but it is difficult to write volumes to everyone that asks - I have loads of questions (and success stories) about baseball cards/collecting in general coming in every day! This is not a complaint - in fact, I'm thankful. I love talking cardboard and helping others out, but time can be scarce. With that said, I finally walked through a card I created on video. Someone reached

Christmas Cards – Showing off the Red & Green

I love the idea of pairing red & green cards together for Christmas, so I did just that with my two PCs: Canseco and Vintage. Here they are! Pictured below is an EXTREMELY rare card ... and the other one is the Red Crusade. Obviously, the Red Crusade is a grail card, but the other is an Executive Prototype that is rumored to have only had 1-3 copies made of it. Plus, I lurve the green - it matches the Oakland green & gold! Next up are my Christmas Cobbs! The vibrant red and green backgrounds make me melt. One came

1995 Upper Deck Electric Diamond Gold Rarity Mystery

Did you know that the Alan Trammell version of this sold for over $400 the other day? Heck, Kent Merker went for $22! 1995 Upper Deck Electric Diamond Gold - This set was sold in 2 series. Series 2 is harder to find, but series 1 isn't exactly a cakewalk. Canseco is in series 1, and doesn't show up often, but isn't as tough as these series 2 cards. This is a card that I never thought much of until researching this set. The wild thing about it is the Electric Diamond Gold cards are stated to have fallen at

Remember when buybacks were rare?

Remember when buybacks were rare? Take for instance, this - Canseco's most famous Topps card, ever. In 2004, Topps gave collectors Jose's first ever buyback auto, and hand numbered it to 99. (Super rare, considering the they probably produced millions of them. The 1991 Donruss Elite is numbered to 10,000, so this buyback is less than 1% of those!) In 2015, they upped the ante and released one numbered to /14. In 2016, they released it again, but numbered to /97. The only real on card difference being the stamp is on the other side. Oh, and several

1986 Donruss Jose Canseco Rated Rookie Fun Facts and my latest Pickup (It’s SUPER rare!)

For a time period growing up in the late 80s/early 90s, there wasn't a bigger card than the 1986 Donruss Jose Canseco Rated Rookie. It was the grail of grails. I have heard reports of it selling for over $150 back then. It didn't matter to me, because anything over $20 might as well have been a million dollars. It was the card that was so hot and so big, that I don't even think it entered my dreams. 1986 Donruss Jose Canseco Rated Rookie - the face of the hobby While I was preoccupied with 1988 Donruss and 1989 Score,

2000 Venezuelan Sticker Jose Canseco – Ultra Rare!

If you know, you know. :) The 2000 Venezuelan Sticker. On the outside, it looks like one of the countless Panini stickers they did decades ago. This, however, is different. It was created in Venezuela during a time when global commerce for things like this just wasn't a common thing, and was created during a time when card companies were creating some truly beautiful cards, so unless you know what it is, even if it popped up, most wouldn't look at it twice. For old school supercollectors and player collectors, however, this has been on many people's want lists since

1889 Goodwin A35 Round Album John Ward – Kicked out of School for Stealing Chickens!

Aside from being one of my favorite 19th century pieces to look at, there is a lot of history here in this 1889 Goodwin A35 John Ward. The piece below was a custom project I worked on which houses the original, authentic 1889 A35. You can read more about that here. John Montgomery Ward was a celebrity who many admired from afar but many also despised up close. This very polarizing figure also formed the first ever sports player's union. Initially kicked out of school for stealing chickens, Ward became a star pitcher, tossing the 2nd perfect game in baseball

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