For those of you who don’t know, A flip quest is a fun way to start out with something small and end up with something big. The first year I did this (2013), I started out with a 1989 Fleer factory sealed set that I got for free from a friend’s dad and ended up with a 1999 Topps Traded Josh Hamilton autograph.

Last year, I started off with a custom 89 UD style Puig and ended up with a million card inventory when all was said and done. In the end, the ultimate goal was a Canseco signing, which is what I was able to do! All the million cards have been gone for a good half year now.

Last year was a bit inflated, because I allowed myself to make more than one custom, so this year it won’t be as high flying, as I will be sticking to a single item – a $25 McGwire I got for “Free” – and go from there.

What is the end game this time? To find something really cool for my Canseco PC. I’m probably going to go hard for one (or a few) of my white whales. Here is a list of what I would like (though in the ocean of collecting, I’m sure there are plenty more white whales out there that I don’t even know about!) I may be picking up things along the way as well. Here are some of the more sought after cards I’d like though:

1989 Donruss & Leaf Blue Chips
1990 Donruss Aqueous
1996 Select Certified Mirror Gold
1997 Pinnacle Totally Certified Platinum Gold
1998 Donruss Crusade Red

As always, I start at the beginning of the season and end whenever the A’s are done – regular season or post season. As of yesterday, I have already been able to knock off the 1990 Donruss Aqueous off the list … woot! To read more about the flip quest, check out pretty much any online collecting forum – I’m on most of them – under the name “mouschi” or “mouschi3” for beckett.