The Last Trade of 2023!

The last trade of 2023 was a super fun one, and it capped off a phenomenal year for my Canseco PC. For a little bit of a back story, the first card I remember ever pulling is a 1987 Topps Jose Canseco. While it isn't his true rookie, it is his most popular Topps card, and perhaps his second most popular card ever, behind his Rated Rookie. In 2017, Topps came out with a set called "Clearly Authentic". In it was a 1986 Topps Canseco Rookie Reprint - and a 1/1 parallel. I thought it was the coolest thing -

You might have GOLD in your relic cards!

Goodness, has it really been 6 months since I've last written an article?  That's a good tell for how busy I've been.  I guess it also speaks to the fact that I haven't really had anything all that interesting to say ... until now.  While the catalyst of the discovery I'm about to tell you is going to zero in on my latest card acquisition, it is my hope that it will cause you to dig into your collection as well, and see if you can uncover gold.  It'll be a fun exercise, I promise!   So, where to begin?  Ahh

Happy Birthday to Me! The 1996 Select Certified Mirror Gold is Back!!!

Cardboard grails are a weird thing, man.  They make you do strange and irrational things, like keep you up at night, trying to figure out where to search, and even post things like this ... or this ...  or even this!    When I walked away from supercollecting, not a single card in the above graphic had surfaced the entire time I was searching.  It should be noted that the first card shown, the 1996 Select Certified Mirror Gold was my main grail I never found, and was one of three that were my favorites.  I dreamt about this card. 

Orange you glad you collect baseball cards?

When it comes to Canseco cards, some of my biggest and best trades have come after I decided to call it quits on supercollecting.  In fact, (to my knowledge) I hold the record for selling the highest dollar amount for a single Canseco card.  More on that later, but that's where today's story starts.   Back in March of 2021, I was "in a selling mood" - the dealer and collector in me often compete.  Well, the dealer in me won on this particular day, and I moved some incredible pieces.  One of which was this Dynasty beauty:  This is a

1932 Sanella Babe Ruth – Did Hitler Collect Baseball Cards?

Happy Babe Ruth Day! On Feb. 6th, 1895, the Sultan of Swat was born.   Ironically enough, I JUST landed this Babe Ruth card! My friend Enrique came over yesterday, and we had a great time talking. BTW, Enrique is now a part of the T206 Wagner Flip Quest!   But anyway, onto the card...it is a SUPER fascinating one ...   Babe Ruth's 1932 Sanella offering pre-dates his Goudey cards, and has, perhaps, sinister implications, as it was produced in Germany during a very dark time.     While the Nazi party was reportedly fringe in years prior, by

1996 Fleer Ultra Home Run Kings Gold Medallion Exchange – Monster 90s Card

In 1996, Fleer went wild with inserts for their Ultra offering.  Among the rarest is the 1996 Ultra Home Run Kings Gold Medallion.  Yes, Fleer didn't think inserts were enough - they had to do parallels of the inserts that were quite literally 10x harder to pull! Collectors were treated to a number of inserts, but a standout would be the wood parallel: Home Run Kings. Seeded 1 every 75 packs, the gold medallion could be found 1 every 750 packs.  A little detail that probably didn't seem like a big deal at the time has become a huge deal

Jose Canseco Christmas Tree!

It's crazy to think that more time has passed since I quit supercollecting Canseco than the entire time I was a Canseco supercollector.  Admittedly, it is a bit difficult to quantify exactly *when* I became one.  In October 2013, I wrote about how I was going to sell my entire childhood Canseco collection.  I loooove one of the things I wrote in that article: Seriously?  A serial stalker?  Oh, 2013 Tanner - wait until you meet 2014-2018 Tanner LOL.  Here's a pic of the bulk of my collection in 2013 that I sold.  The biggest card I owned was probably

Allen & Ginter BIBLE Set?! Jesus has a baseball card!

This may not be news to you, but in 2012, Topps put out an Allen & Ginter insert set called "People of the Bible". It features a great checklist, including my favorite - Jesus! Ed J. sent the entire set to me for free. Thank you so much, Ed! I *love* them! For further research on these guys, you can obviously read the Bible - some folks may be interested in going to www.biblicalarchaeology.org to read up on historical and archaeological facts that support the Bible as well. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldFEHjjEuvU Happy Easter - He is Risen!

Superfractor Mailday and Super Sleuthing!

First, today is the 33rd anniversary of collecting baseball cards - so if anyone has any rare Canseco cards to sell, today would be a GREAT day to land a killer Canseco :)  Now, onto the story ...   2020 marks the only year Jose doesn't have an autographed parallel superfractor in Stadium Club.  This is super ironic, because it is the only Stadium Club photo used for a superfractor of him actually signing things.  I am not into getting 1/1s signed myself, but I may make an exception for this one!       It made me wonder what cards the

Custom Work on 100+ Yr Old Photo Developed from an Old Judge Glass Plate Negative From Vermont Find

Could you imagine discovering the Old Judge original glass plate negatives from the Vermont Find in the mid 90s?  I'll write more on that in a future article, but for now, I thought I'd share a pickup (and custom project) having to do with this find.   In this find were photographs developed directly from the glass plate negatives from over 100 years ago.  I was able to obtain a photograph of Abner Boyce.  Abner Boyce was featured four times in the Old Judge set, and is on the Old Judge "scarce" list.  His cards never surface, and it is a