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134 Year Old Treasure Hunt Yields an Exciting Discovery!

Here is a link to the audio from my podcast if you'd like to listen instead, though I do hope you read the article and check out the pictures! https://anchor.fm/tan-man-baseball-fan/episodes/My-134-Year-Old-Discovery-e13sbv8 What I stumbled upon feels like the baseball card version of the Da Vinci Code and Indiana Jones all wrapped up into one. Everyone loves a good treasure hunting mystery, and I guess that's why I love baseball card collecting so much.  As a 9 year old, nothing would excite me more than when mom & dad would bring me home a pack of 1989 Donruss or take me to

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Am I Trustworthy?

Recently, I ended up selling my entire wax box collection to someone.  Naturally, he wanted to make sure I was legit (who wouldn't?) before making such a huge deal like this, so he posted up a question on the sportscard scammers page on Facebook asking if anyone had any dealings with me.  The results gave me a real kick, so I thought I'd share it here! It is always nice to hear so many people say so many nice things about you, so screenshotting them and saving them on my website is something I definitely wanted to do before it

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2018 Allen Ginter Mini WOOD Hot Case! Help Requested

Over the weekend, I answered an email from someone locally who had a collection of cards they were looking to sell.  I requested some pictures, and most were of the usual junk wax variety, but a lot of it was unopened, so I figured what the heck.  I wasn't looking for anything super exciting, but these are fun at the very least to display.  I drove over to his apartment, and he promptly let me in after I dialed him from the gate.  It was a nice complex, but I was NOT looking forward to making the 3 story climb back

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My Journey in … Comic Book Collecting?

If you have read my book Confessions of a Baseball Card Addict, you know that I have also bought and sold perhaps 40,000 or so comic books.  I never knew much about them, though.  I just bought several collections at good prices and flipped them.  I really did love them, though - I've flipped collections of paintings, rings, shirts, etc.  Comics were on a different level for me.  I love the art on the front, and superheroes.  Who doesn't love superheroes, right?  Here is my garage once upon a time with about 20,000 comics.  It took a guy hiring an

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The $107,868 Lesson, My Book, and Starting Over

If you haven't noticed, I haven't been very active anywhere online for a while.  In fact, November marks the first month in SEVEN YEARS that I didn't write at least one article.  There is a reason for that.  In October, my family suffered a terrible loss by losing my father.  Life tends to stand still when something like this happens - especially when you are as close to someone like we all were to him.  While things are getting better a little day by day, dad passing away left a huge hole in all of our hearts. We are very

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1987 Topps and the Hospital

If you are a child of the 80's, you know what 1987 Topps is.  It was absolutely loaded with key rookies, but it was produced in such high numbers, I probably don't have enough space here to write out all of the zeroes. You may have heard that my dad has been in and out of the hospital for the past half year.  It has been very tough on us all, but no one can really understand what he has been through except for him.  Last night, I decided to take the family to visit him and have a little family fun:

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One Year Older – My Birthday Post

Today I turn 38.  For those of you who are adults, you probably remember growing up thinking MAN!  There are people my age playing major league baseball now!  A decade further, you think DANG!  This rookie crop is a DECADE younger than I am!  10 years later, you desperately look up and down the active rosters to see ANY familiar name from when you were younger. Thank you for still being around, Bartolo Colon. Ken Griffey Jr., Chipper Jones, Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez, Frank Thomas ... all are long gone.  At 38, not only is that one step closer to 40; it

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What is the Value of the 1/1 Stamp?

In 1991, Topps ran the first (known to me) buyback program.  To celebrate 40 years, they randomly inserted one of every card from 1957 to 1990 in packs of 1991 Topps.  (The others were redemptions, if I recall correctly.) Kids and adults alike were VERY excited to get their hands on packs, boxes and cases to join the treasure hunt.  The problem?  It has been said that the buybacks fell about 1 per 24 cases, unbeknownst to us back when they came out.  Imagine opening nearly 500 boxes of 1991 Topps, and your prize is this: (Note: Nick Esasky is my

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2017: My Year in Review of Customs, Collection Additions & Events

As 2017 winds down, I wanted to do a review on my collection, customs created and events having to do with this hobby to document the entire year.  2017 was huge for my collection - over 600 cards have been added, over 45 articles have been written and several of my favorite customs have been created.  When all is said and done, I am left with the following list of notable pickups, events & customs.  I have swung and missed on a number of opportunities, but you miss 100% of the pitches you don't swing at, right?  This article isn't about

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I’m Dreaming of a Cardboard Christmas

The best memories I have of Christmas past have to do with baseball cards.  As a child, the only thing that would rival the excitement Topps, Fleer or Donruss under the tree would bring me was maybe Super Mario Brothers 2 for Nintendo.  At $60, it was a HUGE price tag for my family, but to this day, ask me if I'd rather play something on the PS4 or Super Mario, I'll probably go with the moustachioed plumber. There is nothing quite like learning from Super Mario Brothers 2 that it is okay to play as the princess (when no

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