This is the pile of beautiful cardboard that is now taking up space in my spare bedroom and coincidently is the inspiration for the annoyed looks from my wife when she walks by…..

Last fall I was having a conversation with a guy here in town and as it often does, the topic of cards came up.  He mentioned that he used to collect, but hasn’t done much in the last ten years or so.  He described having two row boxes full of Jordans, baseball rookies, football rookies, and loads of other stuff.  He went on to say he was thinking about selling it to clear out some space.  Well my ears perked up(he had me at the Jordans), and I mentioned that I enjoyed buying collections from time to time and may be interested in taking a look if he ever decided to sell.  We exchanged info and went on our ways.

Well months went by and I’d get an occasional  text saying he hadn’t forgotten about me, and that he’d just been busy.  It was starting to get to the point where it seemed like it was a dead end and just wasn’t going to happen.  Then last Sunday I got a text that said, “I’ve got some time today, can you come over to take a look?”.  My thumbs got a workout letting him know I was on my way…..

I spent an hour or so having a great conversation and looking through a few of the boxes to get a feel for what it was, and we were ultimately able to work out a deal.

I’ve just begun to start organizing, but here’s what I found in the first box.

Griffey Jr., Mattingly, Elway, Frank Thomas, Sandberg, Jerry Rice, Boggs, and Mark McGwire rookies were the first gems.

I’ve got a plan for sorting it all out, and I plan to organize by it’s ultimate destination.  It’s going to take me a while, but I think the final results will be worth it.

1. Personal Collection 
2. Ebay and/or Card Shows
3. COMC 
4. Sportlots
5. Bulk Box Sales

So far it seems like the majority of the collection ranges from about 1990 to about 2005 with some earlier and some newer.  There’s a mix of everything from unsleeved monster boxes to two-rows full of top loaded cards.  I’ve found base 1990 Topps, but there are a fair amount of Finest, Chrome, and some of the other premium brands as well.  

After a couple evenings of sorting, which barely dents the pile, I’m probably sitting on 6K bulk cards, a couple hundred in the COMC pile, about a thousand in the Ebay/Show pile, and maybe 25-50 sweet additions to my PC.

This is fun….just an absolute blast.  Every box brings the mystery of the unknown.  Opening new wax is great, and I plan to do quite a bit of breaking this year too, but it’s hard to beat the value of getting a collection like this!

Here’s a few finds from another box.  

Oh you know, just a couple Peyton Manning rookies and a Ripken.

I’m planning to turn this into a series where I can provide updates on my progress and discoveries over the next few weeks(hopefully not months for my marriage’s sake).  Ideally, I’ll be able to flip enough to cover the cost of the collection, and still have some great additions to my own collection to show for it.

If you enjoyed this, please share it because I need your help in letting others know about the blog!

I also recommend checking out a similar story from a fellow blogger P-town Tom where he explores a collection of his own!

Until next time, best wishes in tracking down your own WaxPackHero!