Birthdays, Customs and Collection Additions

The month of May marks two important landmarks for me.  One, that I will turn 36 years young this Monday (I swear I don't feel a day over 34) and two, the birthday of something I have grown quite attached to.  My moustache. It has been a magical year - my first year as a moustachioed man.  Whenever I'm down after having eaten a delicious slice of cake, my moustache brings me great joy by surprising me with a little extra icing it saved me.  Through thick and thin, it still finds the strength to curl and make others smile. 

Flooded

Last night, the city of Houston was treated to a torrential downpour, and isn't expected to be finished until Wednesday night.  At around midnight, we decided to go out and watch as hail pelted our roof.  The rain came down so fierce, we could hardly see the houses across the street! When I woke up, all was quiet.  After enjoying some delicious milk with breakfast, I had to run my folks back to their house since they borrowed our car yesterday.  On the way, our neighborhood looked like it had been hit by a friggin' tornado.  This is a pic

Why I Make Custom Cards

I remember when I first started making custom cards.  A few months after getting into it, I went to a card show with some of them to show some people just to get a reaction.  Right off the bat, I could tell I was going to get a wide array of responses.  Some looked angry, some looked confused while others looked overjoyed.  Whenever I talk to others and it comes up "yeah, I make custom baseball cards", they scrunch their nose at me and don't really know what that means. I understand customs aren't for everyone, but if there is

Making a Comic Book Come to Life

Ever since I dipped my toe into the pool of selling items beyond sports cards, I have taken notice of the vast differences of personalities of collectors.  One type of collector has really taken me by surprise: Comic book collectors.  Over the past several years, I have probably bought and sold about 80,000 comic books.  I love comic books. Here is what my garage looked like at the end of 2012.  See those boxes?  side from the nice cache of wax you see, everything else is comic books! Comics make me giddy ... not as giddy as baseball cards do,

27 Years of Collecting…TODAY!

WARNING WARNING WARNING:  This post could quite possibly have a high tl;dr possibility among internet viewers, and is highly cansecocentric.  Reader discretion is advised.  (Though, I do hope you stay until the end - I was able to put together some pretty epic pieces of some Hall of Famers!) A few months back, my family and I were visiting my parents.  Mom came out with a stack of journals from school back when I was in elementary.  If you thought my being a baseball card nut is bad now, check out what I wrote in a journal entry back in

Fleer Ultra is Back!

I've waited for this day to come for a long time. I LOVE the simple, classy designs of Fleer Ultra. Too bad they can't use logos though :/ Either way though, still looks mega sweet. Can't wait! Based upon the ad, it looks like there is gonna be some major cool stuff in it as well. Coming February 30th :D

Fun with Junk Wax & Bubble Gum

Remember the days when you could get a pack of baseball cards for 50 cents?  I do.  I don't ever remember getting anything absolutely remarkable, but then again, the hits back then were serial numbered to 10,000 or more and the only time you heard about somebody ever pulling one was through a friend's friend's uncle. I ended up taking a trip down memory lane and picked up a nice little run of topps wax packs from the junk wax era.  The packs I received were from 1984 and ran all the way through 1993.  I decided to crack open

1991-92 Skybox … Derek Jeter?

Didn't the early 90's have some of the wildest graphics ever?  Too bad the cards from that era were mass produced, otherwise I think I'd have a much greater respect for 1991 Donruss.  Born out of the late 80's / early 90's were eye-popping graphics from some of our favorite shows growing up, like ... The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air #yoholmessmellyalater Saved by the Bell #kellywassodreamy One of my twitter (my twitter handle is @tanmanbbfan ) followers sent this, because it fits perfectly in line with the theme... So the other night I was thinking about Skybox, and how clean

Mutant Cards, Zits and Cool Customs

We are now about 20 days into 2016, and I haven't written a single article.  Forgive me, readers, for it has been too long.  The end of 2015 went by faster than any other year I can recall, and I am still scratching my head wondering where all the Christmas lights have gone.  Perhaps it is the 79 degree forecast on the eve of the coldest month of the year for us.  (Seriously, Jan 31st here is supposed to be 79, and I wouldn't doubt it hitting 80!) All that to say, I've been working on an idea I'm really

Cards, Customs, Snow and a Surprise Text

Buckle in, peeps!  This is a long one... A few weeks ago, my wife had an idea - that we should consider helping serve as a woman's homeless shelter on Christmas morning.  When we told my parents, they decided they wanted to come as well.  We told some other friends about it too, and they met us up there too.  This morning, the 8 of us set out to serve in whatever capacity we were needed.  We weren't sure what to expect.  This past thanksgiving, we signed up to help serve the homeless, and we volunteers ended up outnumbering the