A VERY good week for my Personal Collection

I have posted a few times this week about some custom cards for my pc (Canseco). I was really bitten by the custom card bug hard. Mainly because Canseco prematurely ended his career, and I wished that the card companies would make more legends cards of him. Since that didn't happen, I decided to step in :) Soooo ... I pulled out the big guns ...

 

After doing a few mockups, I knew I wanted some of my favorite years of Topps ... in some of my favorite colors, blue and yellow: of 2009 ...

and 2011 ... 

and 2013 ...

While were at it, I was thinking why not a superfractor? 1 of 1, baby!

 

And what the heck, why not an actual custom INVISIFRACTOR - that's right, folks. You saw it here first!

 

The back reads: "Congratulations! You have just received an invisifractor baseball cards of Jose Canseco." (It is stamped #0/0). "Enjoy your beautiful new card. It is a shame that you are the only one who can see it!" Then at the bottom it says "The invisifractor: known by all. Seen by none." My son helped me with the wording, so I'm very happy to have had him in the mix. I made the cards all to have a logo look like Topps, but have it say "tanmanbaseballfan.com"

If you don't know what the invisfractor is, check out more here . It is fantastic stuff. Sumrtop gave me a surprise by doing the psa holder - that was a great addition! If you look closely enough to these designs and know what to look for, you will see a blurred picture of me and Jose together in the background of each card. But way ... there's more! Shortly before this flurry of Canseco-ey goodness, I found out Jose was going to be in town to sign autographs. (YEAH!!!) So I decided to design a card with an autograph window. Then another. Then another. Trying to forget what all this was going to cost and remember this is like the ultimate PC opportunity, I went all out. I designed the cards, had them put together and rushhhhed to me next day air. But wait ... what if I get the wrong sharpie? What if it runs? What if it bubbles?? What if it smudges? NOOOOOOOO!!!!! After scouring the internet, I went to the store and found my answers:

Baby powder to smudge on the top of the card for the auto to stick, and a few types of sharpies to practice with to see what I liked best. So, with all that taken care of, I went to bed last night, ready for the big Canseco meeting. But then I had an idea. What if I could design and print out a custom Allen and Ginters in time for the show? WAIT ... I'm doing 3 autographs already ... why not 3 A&G's??? What if I could put them inside existing A&G autograph frame cards, after yanking out the non-Canseco auto that already exists??? So I got up out of bed, stayed up until 3 am last night, and that is just what I did.

 

Then I got up at 7:30 and went back to work on them. At a little after 12, I was in the car with my 6 custom cards ready to be signed. While I waited for Canseco to get there, I went to a few tables to pick up some one-touch magnetic holders (I have never bought these, because I generally never buy anything for my pc!) and some cheap-o A&G autos that I can pop out and put my customs in. I got in the line, and there he was! Mr. Canseco, in all of his muscle-ey glory. I told him I had 6 things for him to sign and that they were my customs. He said "Really? Wow, these are cool!" I had him sign the 1st 3 in blue, and then the last 3 in red. I asked if he could put "1/1" on the red autos, and he said no problem ... while signing the A&G's, he commented a few times "this is the smallest autograph I have ever done!" Finally, at the end, I mustered up enough courage to ask if I could have a picture with him, and he was fine with it, so a guy in the line volunteered to take my phone and take a few shots. So, with all that said - here is what all made it worth it ..

.

 

 

 Yes, they have backs - custom wording and such with 1/1 gold stamping

 

 I am so stoked about these new additions, not to mention the memories. I've gotten so many compliments on the superfractors and the A&G's today, it has been wonderful. I'm not sure anything Canseco I pulled from a pack would stand up to these cards, but then again, anything I pull couldn't be what I put together to my tastes, either. Finally, here is the pic at the end!

 

It is nice to have not just cards that I wished had been designed and put in the sets originally, but to know that I'm the only one with them, and they are autographed - and that Canseco gave me a compliment on them.  Such a great day!

As an addendum, I just got an email saying that Jose Canseco responded to one of my tweets.  Did you hear that?  He responded to one of my tweets!!!  Okay, I'm not sure exactly where this falls in line with greatest day ever for me, but sure is up there.  Now, in an effort to stop like a giddy school girl, I'm going to go ahead and wrap up this blog posting.

Night!