My $3 Tribute to Zito / Hudson / Mulder

While I was hunting Canseco cards at the Tri-Star card show over a year ago, I started shuffling through several boxes of el-cheap-o game used cards. They were sectioned off by team, so my first stop was the Athletics, of course. Sadly, they didn't have any Canseco cards at all, but they did have several recognizable names. Zito...Zito...Mulder...Zito....Hudson...Mulder... Hmmm, wait a second. "Excuse me, sir. How much are these each?" The dealer responded with "They are $1 a pop." The wheels in my head started to turn.  I had my hand in a bunch of cheap cards from Oakland's former

Jumbo Cut Signature Booklet – A Year in the Making

For every baseball fan, the ultimate best feeling you can have is when your team makes it to the World Series - and wins.  For me, that point was in 1989 when the Powerhouse Oakland Athletics took their cast of super stars & veterans to beat the Giants. I remember being glued to the television and begging for my parents to put the game on the radio if we had to drive somewhere during game time.  I also remember the earthquake - and feeling it, too. I remember Dave Stewart being virtually un-hittable.  I remember the swagger that Canseco and

A few more 2015 Baseball Season Customs

Due to the positive feedback online, I figured I'd throw up a few more! ARod Does the Unthinkable, and wins fans back Perhaps the greatest "nice" villain baseball has ever seen, ARod had his team and fans hating his guts after being caught for a second time cheating, then was banned for a year.  The 2015 stat-line in everyone's heads coming into April for him would likely be 50 games played while hitting 2 homers, batting .182 resulting in him being benched.  Instead, the bronx bomber surprised everyone and smashed 33 round trippers.  Strangely enough, a large portion of baseball's

The 2015 Baseball Season Expressed in Customs

As a whole, baseball has been painful for me to watch since the 2014 all-star break.  The A's traded away .... well ... everybody.  I don't think I'm alone when I say it hurts to see highlight reels being filled up by Cespedes of the Red Sox ... or is it the Tigers ... or wait ... Mets?  and Donaldson of the Blue Jays. Yeah, I know there are better players out there, but why oh why couldn't they have stayed put? Still, baseball is baseball.  It has its ups and its down.  You roll with the punches.  First, and

Up to my Eyeballs in Alligators

Work-wise, this past week has really eaten my lunch.  I've had all sorts of fires to put out, and am running on very little sleep since Wednesday morning.  For a while, it seemed like one solved issue ushered in 5 more emergency issues.  Not fun! Fortunately, I have some very good programmers and they are tying things up for me.  It has been a long time since I've been neck deep in code, but this week I've been fully immersed in php and mysql.  Fortunately, I do see the light at the end of the tunnel!  I just hope it

Tools of the Trade Custom & New Website

Have you ever had one of those days where you feel like you have accomplished nothing?  Well, I have had about a month full of them.  Not because I haven't been busy - but because the progress I have been making on everything seems to be so slow.  Heck, I haven't even touched creating a custom for over a month! What started out as a simple checklist upgrade, ended up being a full blown website overhaul.  I was going to write an article of how I transformed my MS Word Document checklist into a fully searchable sortable online database, but

Mantle, Maris and Jackie Robinson – Need I say more?

For reasons I do not wish to get into publicly, this past decade has had many years of pain and agony.  It is funny how when life goes smoothly, each day seems to zip by quickly.  These past few years have been filled with those kinds of days (Thank you Lord - keep 'em coming!) Blogging has been good therapy for me, and has become a fun hobby as well.  It really is great - I have been fortunate enough to have received a ton of flattering feedback, and have been able to use it as a way to chronicle

Card Revived from the Trash Heap

During my collecting journey, I've made some pretty good friendships with others.  Two of them are very close to Canseco.  One of them pitches to him before games to warm him up and in home run derbies.  At Jose's 51st birthday party, he mentioned the poker cards I made him.  Canseco said "Oh yeah, Tanner made these for me - I love them - they are my favorite!" To hear that your favorite player say something like that about what you made for him AND remember your name (oh yeah, my name is on the back of the cards) -

Custom Time with a Babe Ruth Bat

Since taking apart several 1 of 1's at the requests of their owners to create something truly unique - and posting them - I have had a number of critics.  While several have said they like what I came up with more than what the card companies created, many just thought it was "wrong" to do...regardless of how nice they turned out. One thing that has come out of this whole ordeal is apparently what many of the card companies have been putting out simply are not enough to keep people satisfied.  I have had a lot of interest in

When baseball cards aren’t baseball cards + Custom Rip Card Reveal

I remember having an early interest with Allen & Ginter back several years ago.  I was still getting over the fact that boxes of cards were significantly higher than the $15 I was used to as a child.  I was very intrigued by the pack pulled autographs and relic cards.  So much in fact, that I was willing to drop $80 on a box of A&G.  I was disappointed. I had been told that there would be not one ... not two ... but THREE "hits" (either game used cards or autographs) in the box.  Silly me ... I thought they were talking about