My Mission

My interest in Sportscards began when I was a young boy. My father bought me my first pack of baseball cards when I was 8 years old in 1974. I did not understand the concept of collecting cards at the time but I new there was something amazing about the cards themselves. Dad would open the packs with me and explain what all the statistics on the back meant. I didn't understand all of them but dad was explaining them so they must be important I thought. My dad is a huge baseball fan (Phillies) and he passed his love for the game onto me. He coached me all the way through high school (Plano East) where I became an All-State pitcher and 1st baseman, and eventually received a college scholorship. I have so many fond memories of baseball. I watched Hank Aaron break Babe Ruth's home run record on live TV in 1974. I also attended one of Nolan Ryans no-hitters when I was very young and did not realize the importance of the event. At the time, I could not figure out was so special about a no-hitter, after all Nolan Ryan was a professional he should strike out every hitter shouldn't he?

Some of the best times of my life were spent playing catch with dad, or playing on one of the teams he coached. In 1976 we moved from Southern California to Plano, Texas. At the time I had a small stack of maybe 500 baseball cards. The first boy I met in my new neighborhood showed me his collection of cards! I had never seen so many! He even had 2 cards of Willie Mays! He kept all his cards in a Mrs. Bairds bread box about 3 times the size of a shoebox. That boys name is John P and we have been best friends ever since. He spent that night at my new house and gave me some of his collection to get me started. We spent that whole summer buying as many 1976 topps cards as we could. There is nothing as good as having a best friend that shares a common interest with you is there?

When dad saw that i was having such a good time buying and looking at the cards, he decided to help me put them in order. During that process his love for the cards that he collected when he was young came to his thoughts. I asked him if he wanted to collect cards with me. Over the next 8 years we completed every set from 1953 through 1984, and had duplicate sets of most of them. This collection was going to pay for my college we thought......

After I received my scholorship to play basesball and went away to school the cards were put away in storage. I got married in 1987 and my new wife and I became part time baseball card dealers. Things were going so well that we decided to open a baseball card store in Plano, Texas. After we opened the store I started promoting sports collectible shows with autograph guests such as Mickey Mantle, Whitey Ford, Dave Justice, Warren Spahn, Mark Grace and many others. We opened and second store in a nearby town and things were good. My daughter, the apple of her daddies eye, took her first steps in that store of mine in Plano. I will never forget that. As much as I did not want it to happen, my marraige failed, and my wife and I divorced after 4.5 years. I gave her the new store in the divorce, which she decided to sell. That was a really hard time for me......I felt like a faillure. I lost interest in everything and closed my remaining store. I sold most of my inventory and washed my hands of baseball cards!

During this time (early 1990's) I met the love of my life (Janet). We moved in together and a year later married and moved to Las Vegas. In Las Vegas we started making autographed plaques of sports athletes. We were selling as many as 500 plaques a week. We had a contract with a company in Vegas to produce plaques to holdtheir autographed photos. After our contact was finished we moved back to Texas and changed jobs. For the past 15 years I have had numerous jobs in construction and had hardly ever thought about my baseball cards.

In May of this year my mother passed away. It was a terrible tragedy that hurts to think about as I type. My wife and I came home for the funeral. I couldnot keep my thoughts straight.... How could this happen to my mother? This was not supposed to be the way things would turn out. It was a horrible time for my family and I.

My best friend John P came to the funeral and we found some spare time to talk. He gave me a book about the famous T206 Honus Wagner card that Wayne Gretzky once purchased. It told the entire history of the card and was fascinating. I realized that when I was sorting my cards, reading and enjoying them that the worries of everyday life floated away. A few days later I was telling dad about the book and we began talking about how much fun we had collecting cards together searching from town to town looking for the hard to find cards. I then realized how much I missed collecting and immediately called John P and told him I was thinking of collecting again. He decided to begin collecting again also.

My wife and I now work for a large Trucking company. We drive an average of 16,000 miles per month. We enjoy the job but wish we were home more often. We get to see quite a few baseball card stores all over the country now, and have met some really nice dealers. We purchase cards to keep us company on the road. It really is the greatest hobby I know.

I decided to start this blog as a memoir of my time collecting and as I work on my collection I will bring you insights about the cards, and perhaps you may decide, or may have already decided to start collecting again.