Tuesday, December 10, 2013

...And even more of the haul

After (im)patiently waiting through a 3 day delay, santa claus dressed up in brown shorts knocked on my door last night with a trolley full of goodies.
 







I even busted open my first two boxes:  2010 Topps Hobby Update and 2012 Topps Series 2 Jumbo Rack.  It was fun - I hadn't done that for a while.  It makes me want to rip even more!

Sunday, December 8, 2013

11,500+ Packs of Baseball Cards ... want some? (Buying Binge - part 2)

So, this has been the 4th year in a row that I bought out a boat load of boxes and cases.  The box total is up over 600.  While I didn't actually buy any loose packs, if you count them up from the boxes and cases, they total up to over 11,500!  This is the biggest wax acquisition I have ever made!

Why do I do this?

I have found out that I can have a blast opening a ton of wax while making a few bucks selling some boxes.  These should last me throughout the year.  I hope to be done with all of them by the end of the year though.
Would you like some?  Check out my deals page for a list of everything I have, as well as pictures below.  Here are a few details you may like to know:


  • I can and will trade packs, boxes and cases for your singles, collections, etc.
  • I frequently sell pack lots if you are unsure of what box you want to buy.  It is a great way to get a bunch of packs for cheap that cover a number of different types of cards
  • Everything comes from sealed boxes and cases
  • I also frequently do box breaks for people on you tube.  If you want to buy a box, but don't want to pay shipping on the commons, you pay me for a box, I open it for you on video, and you choose a certain # of cards you want.  This is super fun - if you haven't tried it before, you should!
  • Coming soon:  This year, I plan on doing my first group break!
Please contact me tanmanbaseballfan@gmail.com if you are interested in some cheap wax!


Here are some pictures - this isn't nearly everything at all, but you get the idea :)














Sunday, December 1, 2013

A Buying Binge: Part One

It feels like I have been complaining about not having any cards for a few months.  Work has been heating up recently, so that has kept my mind off of the dreaded cardboard deficiency.  Over the past month, I have had a guy that sells me new card lots bring me cards, which I flipped pretty quickly.  Aside from that, I have not been able to roll up my sleeves and dig in. 

The past few weeks have changed quite a bit.  I am not sure if I had mentioned this before, but ever since selling the last of my cards (which was my Canseco collection) I started asking the question:  "What if I could build up a fantastic Canseco collection using the money I got from my old collection?" 

I have decided to just step back and enjoy collecting Canseco cards again.  It has been a long, long time.  I have been so business minded for baseball cards, that I have not been actively seeking any Canseco cards forever.  The majority of my old collection was just throw-ins from other collections, and stuff I would find from bulk lots.  There was no rhyme or reason to it.  I would imagine my highest dollar card was worth $10, and that was probably a good clip higher than any of the other better cards. 

As I started looking around and researching Canseco cards, I noticed something:  A LOT of the cards out there - inserts, parallels, etc. never showed up in the millions of cards I have been through over the past several years.  That is what I decided to focus on.  From die cuts to gold signatures to refractors, etc.  I simply didn't have many of these at all!  For example - I would have the 1991 Topps Canseco (who doesn't?) but not the Tiffany or the Desert Shield.  I would have the 90's Donruss cards, but not the fractal matrix versions.  I had 11or so game used cards, but not a single certified pack pulled auto. 

Why? 

I guess there is something to be said about the Canseco collectors out there.  When they find one of his cards, they don't let go.  If they don't have it, they will pay dearly for it!  I'm assuming his fan based is a lot like me.  A male in his 30's with some money that grew up living on every swing of his bat, hoping to hear the crack that sends the ball over the fence for yet another home run. 

I have been fortunate enough to grab about 300 or so of his cards from various places online.  While the pictures below do not show all of them, they are my favorites.  I have decided not to focus on the base cards, because those are so easy to come by, it takes no work at all! 

So, while the collection I have now probably represents the same or more re-sell value of what I got from my old collection, I have spent about $200 less than what I got for my old collection, and have so, so, so many more cards that I am proud of - and that I have never had before!  They are truly exciting for me to own.  There are no BIG money cards ... that isn't my interest for now.  I think the highest dollar one is probably the 1993 Finest refractor that I got on the cheap because someone spelled his name wrong :) 

Without further adieu, here are some of my favorites:



A nice bowman chrome / international chrome refractor run



28 jersey / bat cards and 1 certified autograph buy-back



I always loved the 91 Elite.  So impossible to pull.  The 2 91's are Desert Shield, the upper right is a wood card, the bottom left was the most expensive card in my previous collection.  I love the looks of the others!



I am just a flat out sucker for shiny parallels and die cuts, etc.  These all look gorgeous to me.



I am a fan of runs / rainbows / etc.  These are all die cuts, serial # or both!



A nice run of Topps Chrome refractors



Beautiful run of Finest refractors - my favorites are the 93, 94 and 95 gold!



Gorgeous run of bowman's best refractors and atomic refractors.  I loev the '94 most.



His minor league cards from 1983, 1984, 1985 and maybe 1986.  3 of these cards I had from my old collection, which I kept.  My favorites are the 1983 and the 1985 Burger King autograph. 
There are probably 200 or so more that are gold signatures, tiffany's, press proofs, etc.  I am very much so looking forward to the card show at the end of January so I can pick up more Canseco goodness!

While I was cruising the internet, I found something else interesting.  A guy was selling 1,500 Canseco cards - mainly base.  It was cheap enough for me to take out the ones that I need (which is probably 1 of each, as I don't hardly have anything base at the moment!) and sell the rest for profit.  The cool thing is, I checked what else this guy had.  Here is what else I picked up:

700 Mark McGwire
550 Mike Piazza
800 Craig Biggio
800 Jeff Bagwell
1100 Frank Thomas
1300 Cal Ripken Jr.

An absolute incredible power house mega lot of super stars!  They, by the way, are all for sale. 

Stay tuned, as I will be making another post about the unopened box bonanza that I went on over the weekend - I promise you - the purchase dwarfs this post!  Won't you join me while I have a heart attack re-living how much I spent!?  It should be good fun.