- Thread starter
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First off, Tanner, thank you for your time & words. You're perfect for this, as you love to gab and tell stories, and, a great number of members on here (and other sites), including myself, love listening to your stories.
Without further ado, here's is mouschi's (Tanner) Collector's Corner Showcase:
Alright, here is the very long interview! If you would like, I can do one later whenever you are ready for my customs and/or reselling at some point
in the future.
1) When did you start collecting Jose Canseco and why do you collect him ?
I have been a baseball fan since 1989. The absolute, most thrilling part about it was waiting for Canseco to come out and anticipate him hitting a
home run. No one else in the game swung as hard, or hit the ball as hard. I think his passion to hit the ball into the next county came through and
I connected with that. Throughout my childhood, my 15 year hiatus from cardboard and my "career" as a dealer wannabe, I've always kept his
stuff.
I have collected other cards in the past, but would quickly get bored of them, and sell. I am a huge fan of all the different card types. If you ask
anyone why they stopped collecting, more often then not, they will say that it is because it just "got too crazy" with all the releases. From the 90's
inserts, to the mid '00's game used cards and all the variations in between, I hugely appreciate what Topps, Donruss, Panini, Fleer, etc. have done.
I feel these cards are 2 1/2 x 3 1/2" pieces of art. If I saw a piece I liked of say, Jeter, Ripken, Bonds, etc. I'd love having it for a while ... but then
would sell it. Jose Canseco has been the only player I have collected, and wanted to keep. To me, his cards are an intersection of beautiful art and
a player I have followed for years. It is this said intersection that has caused quite an obsession!
Take for example any given card from the junk wax era. For instance, 1989 Donruss. To me, that is a piece of my childhood. I've probably sifted
through tens of thousands of 89 Donruss over the years. When I first started up collecting again as an adult, I made it a goal of mine to get a set of
each year and brand from 1980 to 1993 which is when I stopped collecting as a child. But in actuality, all I really wanted was the Canseco as a
representative of that set. The same goes for virtually all of the other years and makes of cards! While it saves a significant amount of space, it also
makes me look like a bit of a stalker, too. And I'm no stalker! I mean, I'm not the type of guy who would just up and go 2,000 miles to his house or
anything like that.
2) What was the turning point in your collecting Canseco? What put you over the edge and made you completely focus on him?
When I came back to the hobby, I transitioned into being a pseudo dealer/reseller. Each time I found Canseco cards, I'd yank them from the
collection I had just purchased, and put them in my Canseco box/binder in my closet. My plan was to one day organize them, put them in order,
make a checklist to see what I didn't have and go forward. That day never came.
After buying and selling literally MILLIONS of cards over the past several years, I thought I would have had a pretty diverse and substantial
collection of Cansecos ... WRONG. Instead of having several rare cards and fun variations, I had 50 1990 Donruss, 45 1988 Fleer, tons of base, but
no refractors, etc. Collector's choice cards? Sure - tons of them. But very few silver signature cards and absolutely no gold signature cards. I
thought that was nuts, and it was at that point that I realized that if I wanted to seriously collect, I'd have to be intentional about it. It was clear to
me then and there, that no matter how many tens of millions of cards I sifted through, I would never just run into all the Canseco cards I wanted.
Heck, I don't know if I had a single card of his worth more than $20. Here is a picture of my absolute best stuff in my old collection that I used as a
selling point:
Canseco has over 3,000 different cards out there, not counting the odd ball stuff. So how was it that I only had 700 or so different cards of his after
going through so many millions of cards? I decided to sell my entire Canseco collection (save a few cards). After a few weeks of putting it up on
ebay, someone bought the entire collection in October of 2013. So, here I was with almost no Canseco cards for the first time since I was 9, but I
did have a good amount of cash. I decided to put the money into some of his cards that I had never had before. Some of his lower game used
stuff, the parallels like refractors, his collector's choice gold signatures, the donruss gold press proofs, etc. About a month later, I bought 206 of his
cards for $440 - the most I had ever dropped on anything of his before. Here are the highlights of what I received (the 93 finest was a separate purchase, but just had to put it in with the others!):
In one fell swoop, I had more refractors, golds, game used cards, etc. that I had ever had before. The pile was small, but the the feeling of having
so many cards that I didn't have before in one spot was great.
In the next year, I picked up Canseco cards I didn't have here and there. Nothing too crazy, but just things that I saw popping up that I liked. As I
started gaining momentum, I decided to talk to a former super collector whom I had spoken with before. This time, however, I was serious about
buying. He (Orange4040) had a great checklist already to be looked at, so I used my checklist that I had spent so many hours pouring over to
compare with his, and was able to get an absolute boat load of rare cards, oddballs and others from him. Here are some of the pics from January
2015:
I went back and forth with him to get even more over the next few months as well. This put me light years ahead of the game, as I was able to
amass a ton of cards that he had been relentlessly hunting for over 2 decades.
Then, a collector named Dan was selling his collection. I ended up buying everything from him the very next month. I had the vast majority of
cards from this collection - but there were a good 200 or so that I did not. Here are the spoils of that collection:
I quickly found out that from here on, the cards were going to be significantly tougher and more expensive to purchase, as I had pretty much dried
up everything on my checklist that wasn't rare.
I went back to Orange4040 one last time, but this time to pick up the bigger and better cards he still had left. Here is what I had grabbed:
I noticed that my checklist I had worked so many hours on started reaching a tipping point somewhere along the line. It started showing more
items checked off than not. It was at this point that something turned on in me where I was more on a "mission" to track down what I didn't have,
instead of blindly buying things, not knowing if I had them or not. The checklist for me has been incredibly helpful.
The Pacific cards and variations are a very good example. In less than a decade run, they produced over 200 cards of Canseco. 200! Some of these
cards are platinum blue, some are retail only red foils, some silver, some holo-foil, some holo-gold, etc. While some have been easy to obtain, some
are downright near impossible to find. Before I amassed so much from these two large collections, if something came online, I'd pass them up
unless they were special. Now that I am only missing a handful of them, I watch ebay like a hawk when any cards I don't have come up.
Over the past several months, I have had cards come in almost daily from Ebay, the forums, other collectors, etc. which has been tremendous in
helping me bridge the gap from what I have with what I don't. While the 2 large collection purchases were helpful, my collection now sits as
significantly more deep, thanks to my Ebay obsession. Here is a picture of the mail that came in when my family and I were on vacation for about 8
days:
3) What has been the high point in collecting Canseco? The low point?
I'd say it is difficult to determine what the high point is, so generally speaking, I would have to say that it is finding cards I need. Day in and day
out, it is a high trying to hunt down - and find - cards that I don't have. I have a number of people messaging me if ever they find a cool / rare
card of Canseco. I am incredibly grateful and thankful for everyone who does this for me. It blows me away that people are willing to go out of their
way for me like this!
While it was thrilling to be able to bring in the 2 larger collections, I'll say it is actually probably more ... "fulfilling" to find and buy cards one at a
time that I don't have already. Truth be told, tracking the card down and getting a deal done for it is the best part of all for me. It isn't just about
getting a Canseco card I don't already have. It is about getting one step closer to world domination ... err ... having a copy of every possible card of
his that I can. that is what makes us supercollectors so nutty, I think: trying to acheive the impossible like this.
So, in general, the high point for me happens each time I find something cool that I need, and that could be several times each week (though the
frequency is diminishing). Perhaps that is why it is so addicting. Now that my "wants" are fewer than my "haves", each time I find one, it is like a bit
of a high.
As far as the low goes - jeesh, I don't know! I don't think I have a specific time. I'd say it has to do with overall negative dealings with people that
can happen. People can suck sometimes, you know? In the end, I try to remember that we are all humans, and you never know what the person
you are dealing with has been going through. There are some really slimy people out there, and it isn't exclusive to people selling or collecting
Canseco cards. It is across the board.
4) What deal did you have slip through the cracks, that you regret ? Why didn't it work out ?
Sadly, I have a number of these. The two that stick out to me are for a 1998 Red Crusade on ebay. Bidding, it went at a really good price. I simply
wasn't "in the game" yet for that high of a card. If I could go back, I totally would. The other is when someone sold off a huge Canseco collection
on ebay. The same story - I simply was not "there" yet to make a deal that big. It took me a while to shake, but I was still in reseller mode. As I
resell in bulk much of the time, I didn't understand the Canseco market as well as I should have, so I wasn't in the right place to do any big deals.
If I had a time machine, I would have picked up both of those deals, for sure.
5) What's your favorite piece / card in your collection ? Why ?
I have so, so many cards I like, and just like music & movies, my favorite *cards* tend to change.
I'll say that my favorite non-card is my game used fielding glove. I have other game used pieces that I had picked up from Ebay, but this one is
special because Jose traded it to me, and inscribed it for me with several lines of text. In return, Jose received my glove that he said he was going
to use in games. I simply don't think I'll ever be able to top having something cooler than that! It wasn't just the piece; it was also the experience,
and the trade that makes it all so special.
Coming in second place is my game used 1989 World Series baseball autographed by the team. The ball had every single player that played in the
'89 WS for the A's plus a few more ... except for 2: Lance Blankenship and you guessed it ... Jose Canseco. I didn't know how I was going to get
the Blankenship autograph, so I found him online and asked him if he would be so kind to sign. He emailed me back giving me his phone number.
I was never able to get in touch with him, however, many of the players on the 1989 WS team were doing a 25th anniversary reunion, so I reached
out to the A's head office, and a very nice lady told me I could just send the ball to her, and she would have Lance sign it, for free! The A's paid the
shipping back and all! That left one more sig: Canseco. To complete the ball, I was able to bring it to him and have him sign it where I wanted him
to.
As far as cards go, I'm going to have to say my latest creation for my collection is my favorite at the moment. The Jumbo Cut Signature Booklet of
the 1989 World Series A's. I know it isn't a card listed in Beckett, but I love how the design came out, and I love that it shows a large portion of my
favorite team ever.
6) What's your wife / family think of your obsession for Canseco?
They all think I'm crazy, which is fine, because ... I am a bit crazy. Whenever I'm into something, there is no "middle of the road". I'm either all in
or not in at all. We went to a garage sale the other day, and a guy had a Canseco picture for sale. I passed on it, and my wife was dumbfounded.
She said "I don't understand. I just don't understand! You said you didn't have that already. Why didn't you get it?" I told her I wasn't really into
just getting pictures. I don't want to be the stalker guy who has his room plastered with posters, and sleeps in Canseco pajamas. Sadly enough, my
collection is overgrowing my office a bit.
All in all, she is very understanding. I'd have to say that I'm very much so thankful for the internet, so that way I can gush about collecting here,
and spare her / my son from me talking their ears off about it! We have so many things going, we always have so much to talk about that doesn't
have to do with baseball / Canseco, but if I'm being honest, I'd have to say that my hobby does seem to creep its way into our conversations more
frequently than it should.
7) What's your white whale or just a card you can't seemingly track down or acquire ?
I think I'm going to speak for all supercollectors, but there isn't just one. There are many. The 3 that are most important to me are the 1996 Select
Mirror Gold, 1997 Pinnacle totally certified platinum gold and 1998 crusade red. I came VERY close to landing the Crusade red, but the seller
disappeared. Those 3 are at the top of my want list! I do have many others though, like the 1988 Topps cloth w/McGwire, 1989 Donruss and Leaf
Blue Chips cards, and many more.
8) Have you met the player you collect and what was the experience like?
I have, and I wrote an article about it which got published in Beckett - me and Jose were even on the cover of it doing the bash! If you are reading
this though, the odds are you probably have heard me talk about it too much as it is. I'll give a quick recap in case though:
I went to do a private signing using the money from my 2014 flip quest. My family and I drove from Texas to Nevada for this to happen. Half way
there, Jose ended up inviting us to have this happen at his house.
We talked a lot, he showed me a bunch of his recorded home runs while he narrated, ate cup cakes that his fiance made us, traded gloves, fed his
animals, played cards and he wore a boat load of items I had collected in anticipation of the private signing so I could make a bunch of "player
worn" custom cards like the card manufacturers do, but to my specifications and satisfaction.
As I mentioned before, my written article was published in Beckett as the biggest story in the entire August 2015 magazine, and me & Canseco
were on the cover. That in and of itself was a dream come true for me.
Simply put, it was the absolute best player/fan experience ever for me, and I don't think I could have dreamed up something better. I am beyond
thankful and grateful for that having happened to me. This likely tops everything that has happened and will happen for me when it comes to my
hobby. If you would like to read more, you can google "Chasing Canseco" to read my article, or simply go to my blog at
www.tanmanbaseballfan.com . I went through the bazillion pics of my adventure for this interview for something to show, and I must say - even
though it has been 5 months, I still thank God for the experience and am still giddy about it! I simply can't believe it happened.
9) What is your biggest pet peeve about collecting Canseco?
Dealing with lying/deceitful people that back out of deals. It is awful finding a card you "need", come to an agreement only to have them back out.
That is never fun! Generally speaking, once a deal is done, I don't have any problems, but every now and then, something goes sideways and it is
not a good feeling. I'm not saying all deals that are backed out of are due to slimy people. I understand that people change their minds, and that
is their prerogative, but it doesn't make it feel any better. The absolute worst though is when they ARE slimy and they are trying to do something
less than honest.
10) How have forums / eBay / COMC helped your collecting of Canseco? How have they hurt ?
These are 3 separate things, so I'll address each:
COMC: This, to me, is like ebay lite without bidding. I don't buy from it too terribly much, though I do keep an eye on their inventory. One of the
most useful things of the site is that you can look for variations that generally can't be seen on Ebay. This is absolutely huge for me, because I love
getting the little known variations that most people don't even know about.
Ebay: What can I say? The site has been tremendous for tracking down cards that I would have never been able to find. I check the site constantly
for cards I don't yet have. It is fantastic!
Forums: The forums have been incredible. As you may already know, I create custom cards and I write articles for fun. The amount of positive
feedback I get has been phenomenal. I am truly blessed and thankful for everyone who gives me this positive feedback and writes to me. Since
Canseco is my subject, I've become known as "the Canseco guy", so if anything happens to him in the news, I'm the first person that people bring
up. When he shot himself in the finger, I probably had 20 people say "Hey Tanner, you should make a game used finger card!" What can I do
besides play along and create a card of it in photoshop?
11) How much competition do you face in your collecting of Canseco? How often do you check forums / auction sites for your player ?
For the cards that I still need, there are 4-6 main guys, all of which I know. They don't all go for each card, but it doesn't make it all that easy or
cheap to get the super low numbered cards. Together, I'd say we drive the market for the rare cards of his. For cards of his that are more readily
available, the pricing falls off the shelf in comparison. I check ebay and the forums quite frequently for his cards I don't have.
12) Any thoughts of ever giving up the collection ?
To me, family and my responsibility as a husband/father/bread winner is hugely important. If I ever felt like my collection threatened these, I'd give
it up in a new york second (with tears running down my face.) I have done this several times in the past because I've lost interest in things like cars,
other sports cards, etc. I went into seriously collecting with the mindset that "I can quit anytime". Well, the further I get into this, the more I repeat
that mantra, because I think the less I believe it each day. I have not had a passion like this for any hobby ever, so while it may go at some point, I
don't have any plans to sell in the immediate future! Simply put, I love it.
13) How has the generosity of FCB'ers or other forum / site members helped your collection ? Elaborate.
Let's face it - the online forums can be brutal. Many are filled with keyboard warriors that are flat out jerks who put their need to be clever ahead of
being courteous. I have been hesitant to say much at all on the forums at first, but I found out that while there are many jerks, there are also
many, many helpful and kind people. I have had so many people help me out with trying to figure out differences of variations between cards.
The thing that is most shocking to me is the number of cards people have sent to me for free! It truly blows me away. Perhaps even greater than
this is what I had stated before. The positive feedback from my work and writing. That is probably the most cherished to me above all.
In closing, I'd like to say that while you and I may not be sitting at the card shop face to face, opening packs and trading like we may have done in
the late 80's/early 90's, but I am happy about where we are as a collecting community in today's day and age. Our numbers are drastically fewer,
but our community is drastically more tightly knit than every before.
When we get bored from work and need a break, we are a few clicks away from immersing ourselves into collecting. When we have had a rough
day, we can escape simply by browsing the forum topics. We can share our stories, both good and bad. We can comment and ask for elaboration.
We can help each other, and buy/sell/trade with one another. This Jose Canseco collector can fully identify in almost every way imaginable with the
Orel Hershiser collector.
We are not bound by age. 15 year olds can chat it up with 55 year olds, without prejudice and a high powered attorney can talk carboard with a
hamburger flipper. Our collections are growing in ways unimaginable to us a few decades prior. Don't buy into the hype that collecting was better
when we were growing up, because it is not. We are living in the absolute best time period ever to be a card collector! Enjoy it - and do so with
your family!
Last, but not least, my motto is "people over cardboard", meaning that we should be very careful how we treat one another. Be honest, kind and
do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Let's put our relationships with others first, and our hobby a distant second.
Oh, and PS - If you find ANYTHING cool when it comes to Canseco, please do not hesitate to drop me a line at [email protected] - I
would truly appreciate hearing what you may have to sell of his!
PPS - I'm in the middle of writing a book, so keep an eye out!
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Without further ado, here's is mouschi's (Tanner) Collector's Corner Showcase:
Alright, here is the very long interview! If you would like, I can do one later whenever you are ready for my customs and/or reselling at some point
in the future.
1) When did you start collecting Jose Canseco and why do you collect him ?
I have been a baseball fan since 1989. The absolute, most thrilling part about it was waiting for Canseco to come out and anticipate him hitting a
home run. No one else in the game swung as hard, or hit the ball as hard. I think his passion to hit the ball into the next county came through and
I connected with that. Throughout my childhood, my 15 year hiatus from cardboard and my "career" as a dealer wannabe, I've always kept his
stuff.
I have collected other cards in the past, but would quickly get bored of them, and sell. I am a huge fan of all the different card types. If you ask
anyone why they stopped collecting, more often then not, they will say that it is because it just "got too crazy" with all the releases. From the 90's
inserts, to the mid '00's game used cards and all the variations in between, I hugely appreciate what Topps, Donruss, Panini, Fleer, etc. have done.
I feel these cards are 2 1/2 x 3 1/2" pieces of art. If I saw a piece I liked of say, Jeter, Ripken, Bonds, etc. I'd love having it for a while ... but then
would sell it. Jose Canseco has been the only player I have collected, and wanted to keep. To me, his cards are an intersection of beautiful art and
a player I have followed for years. It is this said intersection that has caused quite an obsession!
Take for example any given card from the junk wax era. For instance, 1989 Donruss. To me, that is a piece of my childhood. I've probably sifted
through tens of thousands of 89 Donruss over the years. When I first started up collecting again as an adult, I made it a goal of mine to get a set of
each year and brand from 1980 to 1993 which is when I stopped collecting as a child. But in actuality, all I really wanted was the Canseco as a
representative of that set. The same goes for virtually all of the other years and makes of cards! While it saves a significant amount of space, it also
makes me look like a bit of a stalker, too. And I'm no stalker! I mean, I'm not the type of guy who would just up and go 2,000 miles to his house or
anything like that.
2) What was the turning point in your collecting Canseco? What put you over the edge and made you completely focus on him?
When I came back to the hobby, I transitioned into being a pseudo dealer/reseller. Each time I found Canseco cards, I'd yank them from the
collection I had just purchased, and put them in my Canseco box/binder in my closet. My plan was to one day organize them, put them in order,
make a checklist to see what I didn't have and go forward. That day never came.
After buying and selling literally MILLIONS of cards over the past several years, I thought I would have had a pretty diverse and substantial
collection of Cansecos ... WRONG. Instead of having several rare cards and fun variations, I had 50 1990 Donruss, 45 1988 Fleer, tons of base, but
no refractors, etc. Collector's choice cards? Sure - tons of them. But very few silver signature cards and absolutely no gold signature cards. I
thought that was nuts, and it was at that point that I realized that if I wanted to seriously collect, I'd have to be intentional about it. It was clear to
me then and there, that no matter how many tens of millions of cards I sifted through, I would never just run into all the Canseco cards I wanted.
Heck, I don't know if I had a single card of his worth more than $20. Here is a picture of my absolute best stuff in my old collection that I used as a
selling point:
Canseco has over 3,000 different cards out there, not counting the odd ball stuff. So how was it that I only had 700 or so different cards of his after
going through so many millions of cards? I decided to sell my entire Canseco collection (save a few cards). After a few weeks of putting it up on
ebay, someone bought the entire collection in October of 2013. So, here I was with almost no Canseco cards for the first time since I was 9, but I
did have a good amount of cash. I decided to put the money into some of his cards that I had never had before. Some of his lower game used
stuff, the parallels like refractors, his collector's choice gold signatures, the donruss gold press proofs, etc. About a month later, I bought 206 of his
cards for $440 - the most I had ever dropped on anything of his before. Here are the highlights of what I received (the 93 finest was a separate purchase, but just had to put it in with the others!):
In one fell swoop, I had more refractors, golds, game used cards, etc. that I had ever had before. The pile was small, but the the feeling of having
so many cards that I didn't have before in one spot was great.
In the next year, I picked up Canseco cards I didn't have here and there. Nothing too crazy, but just things that I saw popping up that I liked. As I
started gaining momentum, I decided to talk to a former super collector whom I had spoken with before. This time, however, I was serious about
buying. He (Orange4040) had a great checklist already to be looked at, so I used my checklist that I had spent so many hours pouring over to
compare with his, and was able to get an absolute boat load of rare cards, oddballs and others from him. Here are some of the pics from January
2015:
I went back and forth with him to get even more over the next few months as well. This put me light years ahead of the game, as I was able to
amass a ton of cards that he had been relentlessly hunting for over 2 decades.
Then, a collector named Dan was selling his collection. I ended up buying everything from him the very next month. I had the vast majority of
cards from this collection - but there were a good 200 or so that I did not. Here are the spoils of that collection:
I quickly found out that from here on, the cards were going to be significantly tougher and more expensive to purchase, as I had pretty much dried
up everything on my checklist that wasn't rare.
I went back to Orange4040 one last time, but this time to pick up the bigger and better cards he still had left. Here is what I had grabbed:
I noticed that my checklist I had worked so many hours on started reaching a tipping point somewhere along the line. It started showing more
items checked off than not. It was at this point that something turned on in me where I was more on a "mission" to track down what I didn't have,
instead of blindly buying things, not knowing if I had them or not. The checklist for me has been incredibly helpful.
The Pacific cards and variations are a very good example. In less than a decade run, they produced over 200 cards of Canseco. 200! Some of these
cards are platinum blue, some are retail only red foils, some silver, some holo-foil, some holo-gold, etc. While some have been easy to obtain, some
are downright near impossible to find. Before I amassed so much from these two large collections, if something came online, I'd pass them up
unless they were special. Now that I am only missing a handful of them, I watch ebay like a hawk when any cards I don't have come up.
Over the past several months, I have had cards come in almost daily from Ebay, the forums, other collectors, etc. which has been tremendous in
helping me bridge the gap from what I have with what I don't. While the 2 large collection purchases were helpful, my collection now sits as
significantly more deep, thanks to my Ebay obsession. Here is a picture of the mail that came in when my family and I were on vacation for about 8
days:
3) What has been the high point in collecting Canseco? The low point?
I'd say it is difficult to determine what the high point is, so generally speaking, I would have to say that it is finding cards I need. Day in and day
out, it is a high trying to hunt down - and find - cards that I don't have. I have a number of people messaging me if ever they find a cool / rare
card of Canseco. I am incredibly grateful and thankful for everyone who does this for me. It blows me away that people are willing to go out of their
way for me like this!
While it was thrilling to be able to bring in the 2 larger collections, I'll say it is actually probably more ... "fulfilling" to find and buy cards one at a
time that I don't have already. Truth be told, tracking the card down and getting a deal done for it is the best part of all for me. It isn't just about
getting a Canseco card I don't already have. It is about getting one step closer to world domination ... err ... having a copy of every possible card of
his that I can. that is what makes us supercollectors so nutty, I think: trying to acheive the impossible like this.
So, in general, the high point for me happens each time I find something cool that I need, and that could be several times each week (though the
frequency is diminishing). Perhaps that is why it is so addicting. Now that my "wants" are fewer than my "haves", each time I find one, it is like a bit
of a high.
As far as the low goes - jeesh, I don't know! I don't think I have a specific time. I'd say it has to do with overall negative dealings with people that
can happen. People can suck sometimes, you know? In the end, I try to remember that we are all humans, and you never know what the person
you are dealing with has been going through. There are some really slimy people out there, and it isn't exclusive to people selling or collecting
Canseco cards. It is across the board.
4) What deal did you have slip through the cracks, that you regret ? Why didn't it work out ?
Sadly, I have a number of these. The two that stick out to me are for a 1998 Red Crusade on ebay. Bidding, it went at a really good price. I simply
wasn't "in the game" yet for that high of a card. If I could go back, I totally would. The other is when someone sold off a huge Canseco collection
on ebay. The same story - I simply was not "there" yet to make a deal that big. It took me a while to shake, but I was still in reseller mode. As I
resell in bulk much of the time, I didn't understand the Canseco market as well as I should have, so I wasn't in the right place to do any big deals.
If I had a time machine, I would have picked up both of those deals, for sure.
5) What's your favorite piece / card in your collection ? Why ?
I have so, so many cards I like, and just like music & movies, my favorite *cards* tend to change.
I'll say that my favorite non-card is my game used fielding glove. I have other game used pieces that I had picked up from Ebay, but this one is
special because Jose traded it to me, and inscribed it for me with several lines of text. In return, Jose received my glove that he said he was going
to use in games. I simply don't think I'll ever be able to top having something cooler than that! It wasn't just the piece; it was also the experience,
and the trade that makes it all so special.
Coming in second place is my game used 1989 World Series baseball autographed by the team. The ball had every single player that played in the
'89 WS for the A's plus a few more ... except for 2: Lance Blankenship and you guessed it ... Jose Canseco. I didn't know how I was going to get
the Blankenship autograph, so I found him online and asked him if he would be so kind to sign. He emailed me back giving me his phone number.
I was never able to get in touch with him, however, many of the players on the 1989 WS team were doing a 25th anniversary reunion, so I reached
out to the A's head office, and a very nice lady told me I could just send the ball to her, and she would have Lance sign it, for free! The A's paid the
shipping back and all! That left one more sig: Canseco. To complete the ball, I was able to bring it to him and have him sign it where I wanted him
to.
As far as cards go, I'm going to have to say my latest creation for my collection is my favorite at the moment. The Jumbo Cut Signature Booklet of
the 1989 World Series A's. I know it isn't a card listed in Beckett, but I love how the design came out, and I love that it shows a large portion of my
favorite team ever.
6) What's your wife / family think of your obsession for Canseco?
They all think I'm crazy, which is fine, because ... I am a bit crazy. Whenever I'm into something, there is no "middle of the road". I'm either all in
or not in at all. We went to a garage sale the other day, and a guy had a Canseco picture for sale. I passed on it, and my wife was dumbfounded.
She said "I don't understand. I just don't understand! You said you didn't have that already. Why didn't you get it?" I told her I wasn't really into
just getting pictures. I don't want to be the stalker guy who has his room plastered with posters, and sleeps in Canseco pajamas. Sadly enough, my
collection is overgrowing my office a bit.
All in all, she is very understanding. I'd have to say that I'm very much so thankful for the internet, so that way I can gush about collecting here,
and spare her / my son from me talking their ears off about it! We have so many things going, we always have so much to talk about that doesn't
have to do with baseball / Canseco, but if I'm being honest, I'd have to say that my hobby does seem to creep its way into our conversations more
frequently than it should.
7) What's your white whale or just a card you can't seemingly track down or acquire ?
I think I'm going to speak for all supercollectors, but there isn't just one. There are many. The 3 that are most important to me are the 1996 Select
Mirror Gold, 1997 Pinnacle totally certified platinum gold and 1998 crusade red. I came VERY close to landing the Crusade red, but the seller
disappeared. Those 3 are at the top of my want list! I do have many others though, like the 1988 Topps cloth w/McGwire, 1989 Donruss and Leaf
Blue Chips cards, and many more.
8) Have you met the player you collect and what was the experience like?
I have, and I wrote an article about it which got published in Beckett - me and Jose were even on the cover of it doing the bash! If you are reading
this though, the odds are you probably have heard me talk about it too much as it is. I'll give a quick recap in case though:
I went to do a private signing using the money from my 2014 flip quest. My family and I drove from Texas to Nevada for this to happen. Half way
there, Jose ended up inviting us to have this happen at his house.
We talked a lot, he showed me a bunch of his recorded home runs while he narrated, ate cup cakes that his fiance made us, traded gloves, fed his
animals, played cards and he wore a boat load of items I had collected in anticipation of the private signing so I could make a bunch of "player
worn" custom cards like the card manufacturers do, but to my specifications and satisfaction.
As I mentioned before, my written article was published in Beckett as the biggest story in the entire August 2015 magazine, and me & Canseco
were on the cover. That in and of itself was a dream come true for me.
Simply put, it was the absolute best player/fan experience ever for me, and I don't think I could have dreamed up something better. I am beyond
thankful and grateful for that having happened to me. This likely tops everything that has happened and will happen for me when it comes to my
hobby. If you would like to read more, you can google "Chasing Canseco" to read my article, or simply go to my blog at
www.tanmanbaseballfan.com . I went through the bazillion pics of my adventure for this interview for something to show, and I must say - even
though it has been 5 months, I still thank God for the experience and am still giddy about it! I simply can't believe it happened.
9) What is your biggest pet peeve about collecting Canseco?
Dealing with lying/deceitful people that back out of deals. It is awful finding a card you "need", come to an agreement only to have them back out.
That is never fun! Generally speaking, once a deal is done, I don't have any problems, but every now and then, something goes sideways and it is
not a good feeling. I'm not saying all deals that are backed out of are due to slimy people. I understand that people change their minds, and that
is their prerogative, but it doesn't make it feel any better. The absolute worst though is when they ARE slimy and they are trying to do something
less than honest.
10) How have forums / eBay / COMC helped your collecting of Canseco? How have they hurt ?
These are 3 separate things, so I'll address each:
COMC: This, to me, is like ebay lite without bidding. I don't buy from it too terribly much, though I do keep an eye on their inventory. One of the
most useful things of the site is that you can look for variations that generally can't be seen on Ebay. This is absolutely huge for me, because I love
getting the little known variations that most people don't even know about.
Ebay: What can I say? The site has been tremendous for tracking down cards that I would have never been able to find. I check the site constantly
for cards I don't yet have. It is fantastic!
Forums: The forums have been incredible. As you may already know, I create custom cards and I write articles for fun. The amount of positive
feedback I get has been phenomenal. I am truly blessed and thankful for everyone who gives me this positive feedback and writes to me. Since
Canseco is my subject, I've become known as "the Canseco guy", so if anything happens to him in the news, I'm the first person that people bring
up. When he shot himself in the finger, I probably had 20 people say "Hey Tanner, you should make a game used finger card!" What can I do
besides play along and create a card of it in photoshop?
11) How much competition do you face in your collecting of Canseco? How often do you check forums / auction sites for your player ?
For the cards that I still need, there are 4-6 main guys, all of which I know. They don't all go for each card, but it doesn't make it all that easy or
cheap to get the super low numbered cards. Together, I'd say we drive the market for the rare cards of his. For cards of his that are more readily
available, the pricing falls off the shelf in comparison. I check ebay and the forums quite frequently for his cards I don't have.
12) Any thoughts of ever giving up the collection ?
To me, family and my responsibility as a husband/father/bread winner is hugely important. If I ever felt like my collection threatened these, I'd give
it up in a new york second (with tears running down my face.) I have done this several times in the past because I've lost interest in things like cars,
other sports cards, etc. I went into seriously collecting with the mindset that "I can quit anytime". Well, the further I get into this, the more I repeat
that mantra, because I think the less I believe it each day. I have not had a passion like this for any hobby ever, so while it may go at some point, I
don't have any plans to sell in the immediate future! Simply put, I love it.
13) How has the generosity of FCB'ers or other forum / site members helped your collection ? Elaborate.
Let's face it - the online forums can be brutal. Many are filled with keyboard warriors that are flat out jerks who put their need to be clever ahead of
being courteous. I have been hesitant to say much at all on the forums at first, but I found out that while there are many jerks, there are also
many, many helpful and kind people. I have had so many people help me out with trying to figure out differences of variations between cards.
The thing that is most shocking to me is the number of cards people have sent to me for free! It truly blows me away. Perhaps even greater than
this is what I had stated before. The positive feedback from my work and writing. That is probably the most cherished to me above all.
In closing, I'd like to say that while you and I may not be sitting at the card shop face to face, opening packs and trading like we may have done in
the late 80's/early 90's, but I am happy about where we are as a collecting community in today's day and age. Our numbers are drastically fewer,
but our community is drastically more tightly knit than every before.
When we get bored from work and need a break, we are a few clicks away from immersing ourselves into collecting. When we have had a rough
day, we can escape simply by browsing the forum topics. We can share our stories, both good and bad. We can comment and ask for elaboration.
We can help each other, and buy/sell/trade with one another. This Jose Canseco collector can fully identify in almost every way imaginable with the
Orel Hershiser collector.
We are not bound by age. 15 year olds can chat it up with 55 year olds, without prejudice and a high powered attorney can talk carboard with a
hamburger flipper. Our collections are growing in ways unimaginable to us a few decades prior. Don't buy into the hype that collecting was better
when we were growing up, because it is not. We are living in the absolute best time period ever to be a card collector! Enjoy it - and do so with
your family!
Last, but not least, my motto is "people over cardboard", meaning that we should be very careful how we treat one another. Be honest, kind and
do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Let's put our relationships with others first, and our hobby a distant second.
Oh, and PS - If you find ANYTHING cool when it comes to Canseco, please do not hesitate to drop me a line at [email protected] - I
would truly appreciate hearing what you may have to sell of his!
PPS - I'm in the middle of writing a book, so keep an eye out!
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