Mouschi's Rolling Canseco Pickup Thread

[mouschi]

Some of the best collections out there are probably stored in boxes in closets, which is a shame. The only air time they get is when talking to other collectors about what you have. Whenever I say anything about cards to anyone I know, they have a sneaking suspicion that I'm really a 12 year old with a beard.

I thought I'd take this time to post up a thread that will show some recent pickups I have made for my personal collection. Some will be cheap and some will be expensive. I'll try to update it as frequently as possible, and will show the card I have displayed on my desk for that day.

Not only that, but I would like to post a short story along with each card, whenever possible.

Here is the first!

2013 Panini America's Pastime Jose Canseco Eckersley Dual Autograph #/15

There was a long period of silence for Canseco collectors. From 2007 to 2012, Canseco simply didn't have very many cards to speak of that looked all that collectible to many. Sure, there were some down right strange cards of him playing poker, cards of him in a suit, etc. but not many that I feel showed him as the true slugger he was.

For me, Panini broke the silence in 2013. This card was different from the others - plus, it was a booklet - with Dennis Eckersley's autograph on it as well! This is a win-win for me, because I LOVE Eck as well. This is a card that I would have went bananas for when I was a kid ... heck, I still go bananas for it now! This card screams 1989 dominance all over.

Sure, there are no logos, but Panini does a great job hiding them inconspicuously, and they use plenty of GREEN to trick your mind into thinking that it is a legit A's card .



This came folded up in a case in a collection I purchased a short while ago, and it was only yesterday that I put it in a booklet holder to display next to my monitor. I think it is a great addition to the PC!

Have any Canseco cards I may need? HIT ME UP!

[quitcrab]

What's his toughest card ?
What are the 86 donruss rookies selling for ?

[mouschi]

Originally Posted by quitcrab

What's his toughest card ?
What are the 86 donruss rookies selling for ?

He has many tough cards. I'd love his 89 Donruss & Leaf Blue Chips, 90 Donruss Aqueous, 98 Crusade Red, 96 Select Certified Mirror Gold, 97 Pinnacle Totally Certified Gold among many others. The 1986 Donruss rated rookie goes for $5-10 and I'd say his "The Rookies" version may go for $1-3

[pawpawdiv9]

i found this card (in my football stash)
I figured you'd like to see a shirtless Jose (for those wo-man collectors!)
Disregard the card on the right- its a football player-Griese

[IMG][/IMG]

[mouschi]

I do have it but thanks for posting!

Originally Posted by pawpawdiv9

i found this card (in my football stash)
I figured you'd like to see a shirtless Jose (for those wo-man collectors!)
Disregard the card on the right- its a football player-Griese

[mouschi]

Today's card is a 1999 Sports Illustrated Fabulous 40's hand numbered to the number of homers Canseco hit. Here is a picture of the regular embossed version and the hand numbered prismatic version.

This card caught my eye the first time I saw it quite a while ago on ebay and thought I would go for it if it was low enough ($10-15 range). It was such a nice/quirky looking card hand numbered card. The finish is beautiful, and the design work is so 90's.

Fleer made these cards with odd coloring on the close up picture, and squeezed/elongated that photo to fit on the right hand side. The design is certainly true to its time period. The fact that it is embossed is cool, too. They have like, a trillion things going on with this card. If anyone is a 90's inserts fan, this is right on the mark.

It ended up going for $60 or $70 which blew me out of the water. The last one went for $27.50 including shipping, which had 2 bids and was listed under the player Mark McGwire.

There are no hand numbered Fabulous 40's of anyone listed on ebay right now out of the 13 card set. I'm glad I was able to get my copy!

[mouschi]

Look at that! Only a few days in, and I'm already breaking protocol.

Today's feature is not made of cardboard at all. They are Bobble heads! Who doesn't like bobble heads?

I've loved bobble heads for as long as I can remember, and have had several in the past several years, but never really kept any for long because they take up too much space. I always had hoped that Canseco would have some, and as it turns out, he does.

Unbeknownst to me up until a few months ago, he has TWO.

I found out about a year ago, that he had one that featured him on the Tacoma Tigers. Makes it mega awesome that he is in a minor league uni. I knew I had to have it, so I ended up buying a collection of his stuff, primarily just for the bobble.

Then a few months ago, while browsing ebay, I found ANOTHER Canseco, but in a green jersey. Upon closer inspection, it is yet another minor league issue - this one from the Modesto A's.

Both are fairly rare, but the Modesto issue is particularly tough to get in great condition. Both seem to always come up with condition issues.

So, now they are both home in a hutch on my desk - silently bobbing their heads and agreeing with everything I say and do (so long as I give the desk a little jolt!)

Windwalker Disc 3-7/8" diameter from the 1990 American League All Star Edition. Made by Sportsmobile Products in 1991 as per date on instructions. Complete set of 9 discs with a player on each side plus one American League All Star team Disc 6-1/2" diameter. Canseco has Rickey Henderson on the flip side.I purchased this in NJ at Nichols Dept Store for a few bucks, still sealed in original package. The Standard Catalog of Baseball Cards have them incorrectly listed for 1990 when they were from 1991

[mouschi]

@rgpete that is a cool piece. I have it but it is not with the set, nor is it in wrapper.

[mouschi]

Today's entry features a very rare beauty. I consider this a card from "the lost years". I didn't collect in 2000 - I was too busy with friends and dating my now-wife to be bothered by cards. During my several year hiatus, the hobby that I had loved as a child changed so much.

When I got back into it, game used and autographs took up all the oxygen in the room for me, and these lesser known parallels went unnoticed until recently.

When I picked a collection, not only was there a nice 2000 base skybox Canseco, there was an identical card next to it, but with red foil: The Star Rubies version. COOL! I thought to myself, as I marked it off my checklist. But then, I saw there was another called a "Star Rubies Extreme".

???

This was # to 50. A 15 year old card #'ed to 50 is a tough grab. Not only does it have to be pulled from the bazillions of cards it probably got mixed up in, it also had to survive changing hands while being mixed in with junk era cards that were carelessly tossed about. It also had to be pulled ... AND not from a box that was stacked heavily upon in some humid garage for any amount of time - such is a disaster for having a brick of cards. I mean, who knows how many of these actually are around and available? 25?

The other day, I found it on ebay! I just got it in today, and it is ... no joke ... BEAUTIFUL in hand. The background POPS - this picture does it absolutely no justice. I think I'm in love.

2000 Skybox - 2000 Skybox Star Rubies - 2000 Skybox Star Rubies Extreme /50

[mouschi]

The year was 1989. It was a time of the ritualistic 1989 Donruss or Score pack for 50 cents every time my mom went to Target. It was a time to dream about what it would feel like to open up an entire case of baseball cards.

It was the birth of my love for baseball cards.

Every week, I was promised by my parents to go to the card shop and spend my allowance. One particular weekend, we ended up going to a dealer's shop who went to our church, instead of the Bullpen (the dealer was my hero!) I had my mind and heart set on a 1989 Topps Jose Canseco. Fresh off of his 40/40 year, Jose is pictured looking on, with a look on his face like he knows he's gonna do amazing things.

Dad and I went into the shop, and while dad was talking to Ronnie behind the counter, my eyes darted back and forth from all the cases.

No '89 Topps Jose.

I mustered up the courage to ask and Ronnie said "I'm sorry, we don't have one. But we do have a 1989 Score Canseco for the same value."

75 cents either way. I was hoping for a Jose who was gazing into the future, but instead, I'm met with Jose who looks like he is about to trip on something while playing whack-a-mole.

"But...but...I wanted the 1989 Topps Canseco."

"Well, you are just going to have to settle on the '89 score, or you won't get nuthin'!"

That is about as firm as dad ever got with me, but as a sensitive 9 year old child living a roller-coaster of a childhood, that was all it took to smack any sense of entitlement out of me. Lesson learned: Life just doesn't work out the way we want it to sometimes ... even with baseball cards.

I picked up the 1989 Score Canseco, and guess what? I loved it. I don't even recall how I picked up the 1989 Topps version, but now that I have 2, it is nice to have them in the collection - even though they are about a quarter each IF you don't have to pay $2 in shipping and find them in person.

[mouschi]

1999 Upper Deck Century Legends Top 50 Contemporaries Die Cut #/100

This is one of the many, MANY examples where I'm just not buying that there are 99 others of these floating around. I saw it online and clicked the buy it now because it was much too purty to pass up. Had you offered this to me for $25 3 months ago, I would have smiled and politely declined, but now, I simply couldn't give the money over fast enough.

It has it all:

- Holofoil [CHECK]
- Serial # [CHECK]
- From the 90's [CHECK]
- Die Cut [CHECK]

That does it for me! Very happy with this pickup.

[mouschi]

When I made the decision to be "all in" and collect Canseco, I had my reservations about collecting his 2014 cards. Flooding the market in 2014 with over 200 new cards of Jose just didn't seem right. One way I made it justifiable to make a big purchase of a former collector's collection was that I was planning on selling off all of those "un-authentic, icky" 2014 autographs.

I mean, who do they think they are anyway? They weren't much around from 2005-2013. Do they think they can just walk in again like the past decade never happened? I wasn't having it.

And then they came in the mail.

Turns out I WAS having it, and going back for second and third helpings. The cards are so nice looking. Here is my partial 2014 Tribute auto rainbow. I love them so much. I just checked also, and aside from the 1/1 I am only 2 away from the full rainbow ... cool!

[mouschi]

1998 Leaf 50th Anniversary cards. For those of you who are relatively new to the hobby, you may think that having multiple parallels of the same card is a fairly new concept.

Turn back the clock 17 years, and you would find these beauties. They appear to be a base, chrome, refractor, copper superfractor, copper superfractor die cut and a blue super fractor die cut.

These are the Fractal Matrix cards from 1998 Leaf.

I just got in the blue diamond axis, and absolutely love it! I remember seeing someone stealing it on ebay a year or more ago - I looked at it and thought gahhhh what a nice, nice card. It was just out of my reach though. I couldn't get myself to open up my wallet for a 90's card with no jersey or autograph on it.

Fast forward to this past week....I'm happy I got it!

[mouschi]

Ahh, yeah - the 1986 Topps Traded Canseco. The XRC. The First Topps card ever. Growing up, I only knew of one kind...the base kind. As it turns out, there was also a tiffany version. Then the procelain version someone put out later. Then in 2001, you could find the base, gold, chrome, refractor and superfractor.

Superfractor? They never made a superfractor!

Well, ok ... the superfractor is something I made, but I couldn't resist having it in this photo op! I never intended for it to be in my pc, because I didn't worry much about the cut, etc. but I think it looks pretty good with the others.

[mouschi]

I've had a LOT of awesome pickups recently, but here is a more unique one. I was cruising online to see if anyone had a nice lot of Canseco I did not have, and lo & behold, someone had something that I hadn't ever seen before.

Pacific Show/Expo embossed cards. They are cool enough w/out a back story, but the history of them make them definitely worthwhile.

You cannot really tell they are embossed until you tilt them in the light, and then they pop.

Back in the 90's, Pacific setup at card shows with a promotion where you could bring any Pacific unopened pack of cards to them of any sport, and for $3, you could get ONE card per pack embossed.

They had shows in Chicago, St. Louis, Kansas City, Toronto, Montreal, NY/NJ and perhaps other places as well. Try as hard as I could, and I was simply dumbfounded at the lack of information on these events ... forget about finding any embossed Canseco cards!!! I simply could not find any at all.

I love these types of cards. I love the story of how you had to open the packs in front of Pacific and how their stamps were used to emboss. It is a mystery at how many are out there, but I have a strong feeling that the Canseco supply is very, very limited. Not just because I simply cannot find any, but because of putting two and two together. Here is an example:

Say you are a dealer and you bring a box of Pacific to the table. It is going to cost you $108 to get one card per pack. You were not guaranteed a single Canseco in one box - (500-550 cards per box, but 660 cards per set by using '93 as an example) and even then, his card would have to compete with the rest of the pack. If the pack with Canseco was in the same pack as Sosa, McGwire, Bonds, Ripken, Nolan, Jeter, Griffey, Thomas, etc. the odds are the dealer would pass on Jose and have the other bigger card from the pack embossed.

Something else to keep in mind as well is the limited number of boxes opened in front of Pacific representatives. We aren't talking like a print run of 75 that was scattered throughout an entire product. We are probably talking about a VERY small piece of the production pie that even had a chance to get embossed. Coupled with the fact that if an unknowing collector doesn't tilt the card in the light at the right time to see the difference, you have made a very rare card much, much rarer.

The incognito effect.

I was fortunate to talk at length with a dealer about this who basically stalked Pacific in the 90's to get a bunch of cards done. I was very thankful to have met him and learn the story from him. I was able to pick up something truly unique for my collection!



But not only that - he sold me 16 different others. As you can see, there are doubles, but the stamps are different.



He was kind enough to throw in several fliers from the card shows as well. They state that you can bring any 1998 product, but in the end, they allowed for a pacific product of any year and any sport as long as it was in fact from Pacific, and was opened in front of them.

Some of the coolest cards I got from him were the ones stamped with the Super Bowl 33 Logo. 33 of course, being Canseco's number makes the player collector in me jump for joy.

So, with all that said, I'm officially hooked on these, and will continue to be looking for more!

[mouschi]

In the early 90's, I believe it was, a new, cutting edge type of comic book came out by the name of the Walking Dead. It was a very limited run. I was not into comics, nor am I now (though I do enjoy the thought of having them, plus, I've sold about 40,000 of them over the past 4 years or so.)

When the tv show hit, the prices sky-rocketed. Whenever I would sell a lot of comics, the first question was "Got any Walking Dead?" The answer would always be no. Why? Because they were very scarce ... EVERYBODY and their brother wants them! Heck, even those who didn't ask, would go straight to the "W's", and thumb through them to see what there was.

Card companies have put out some pretty cool parallels. Topps for instance, came out with the gold parallel. It has taken on a number of forms - from the early 90's that was merely gold foil over the names, to the now-more standardized gold borders.

Did you know that 2001 wasn't the first time the gold border was used by Topps? Sure, mainstream maybe, but did you know that they dabbled in it back in the 80's?

I have heard some stories about such a card before. I have even seen a few, which I absolutely loved the look. I keep thinking ... why on earth didn't they come out with these things before? Apparently, there is one "SHEET" of these that is known in existence (by me anyway). It is sheet "F" which means the Canseco All Star would have been on that sheet. So, either 33 or 66 of these cards (different players) are possible, but in sheet form, many can get damaged over the years with wrinkles, or trying to cut them out of a sheet, etc. So if we aren't looking at a 1/1 card, we are still looking at something incredibly scarce.

The other day, I was shown that the Canseco does truly exist! It was in the hands of another collector whom I suspected had it, but heard it was offered up for a large amount of money. After my first purchase with this seller, I asked again hoping to be offered it. Sure enough ... he offered!

I got it! I also got some other cool items. My first pic of it was in a bgs slabbed holder, but the buyer took it out to put it in his Canseco binder. I don't like that he did that, but honestly ... I'm not a fan of slabs anyway.

So, here it is: the great-great-great grandfather of the topps gold border parallels ....




I truly love this card. This is like the Topps version of the Aqueous, but I'd have to say cooler because not only may it be more rare; it is also significantly more different looking on the front instead of just a stamp on the back.

It is like the Walking Dead comics that were not popularized until the tv shows came along. I wonder if Topps threw this concept around and perhaps the higher ups just didn't like the look because it was ahead of its time. Perhaps it was too gaudy for them, I don't know. I think it is cool that this may have been the birth piece of gold borders.

Out of all the amazing pickups I've made over the past few months, this ranks up there as one of my favorites, if not my favorite!

[Bestdj777]

Originally Posted by mouschi

I think it is cool that this may have been the birth piece of gold borders.

Hi Mouschi,

As an FYI, Topps actually released a set of cards with gold borders in 1965. It was their Topps Embossed set. Not sure if they did anything between that and the issue of your card though--I only collect from 1951-1969 and don't spend much time on the 1980-present side of this board.

Chris

[mouschi]

Good call! I don't count them though as most of those types of cards were gold. But then again, maybe that is just an excuse for me to keep with the integrity of my article title

Originally Posted by Bestdj777

Hi Mouschi,

As an FYI, Topps actually released a set of cards with gold borders in 1965. It was their Topps Embossed set. Not sure if they did anything between that and the issue of your card though--I only collect from 1951-1969 and don't spend much time on the 1980-present side of this board.

Chris

[the 'stache]

Could we possibly get this moved to the correct forum? This isn't really a pre-1980 topic.

[mouschi]

Originally Posted by the 'stache

Could we possibly get this moved to the correct forum? This isn't really a pre-1980 topic.

My apologies - yes, if someone can move it, please do. When I first made this thread, I saw post war and jumped on it, only to find out a week later it said pre '80. Let's get this icky 80's to present stuff out of your forum!

[Bestdj777]

Originally Posted by mouschi

My apologies - yes, if someone can move it, please do. When I first made this thread, I saw post war and jumped on it, only to find out a week later it said pre '80. Let's get this icky 80's to present stuff out of your forum!

I think that, deep down, you want to collect vintage baseball cards Mouschi. It is okay to admit it. We won't judge.

[mouschi]

Originally Posted by Bestdj777

I think that, deep down, you want to collect vintage baseball cards Mouschi. It is okay to admit it. We won't judge.

I love vintage I'll be writing about it shortly, but I did a deal a while back with someone for a BOAT LOAD of vintage for all my 80's stuff. This was in the early 90's, so don't worry ... the only way it would have been known as a rip-off is if I had done the deal with a time machine involved.

[the 'stache]

Originally Posted by Bestdj777

I think that, deep down, you want to collect vintage baseball cards Mouschi. It is okay to admit it. We won't judge.

I agree, Chris.

No problem, Mouschi. I did that once or twice when I started here, too. It's a little more structured than Sports Card Forum, so I'm just trying to pass that along. The posters here are more mature on the average than you'll find over there. Of course, my coming here messed that all up, lol.

[mouschi]

I'm just getting back to this thread - I've just been busy spending some time hanging out with the guy on the cardboard I collect! I'm sorry - I know you are probably sick of hearing about that right now, but buckle in ... I'm not likely to shut up about it anytime soon.

This evening's edition features the 2001 Donruss Elite cards.
One regular, red die cut to 67 and gold die cut to 33


I actually picked up the gold #/33 while we were on our road trip and I was just jumping out of my skin, because I've wanted this card for so long and wasn't sure I'd ever see it again. I got it for a *LOT* less than I thought I was going to have to pay!

Here it is in all of its serial numbered, die-cut, refractory glory:



I can't tell you how much I love this card.

[mouschi]

When I first saw 2000 Tek not too long ago, I was very happy with the design. They looked soooo cool.



Then I found out there were like a bazillion and a half different variations.

After a lot of time and money, I have put together the entire run, including 5 color variations and 1 gold. I believe there are 2 other golds out there, but they are #/10 and 15 years old now, so who knows if I'll ever see them - I'm crossing my fingers



And now for just the 5 colors by themselves (the last 2 colors just came in a few days ago ... yesssss!) I love how they all look together.

[mouschi]

One of my latest pickups just might be my favorite 80's odd ball card ever.

Yazfan71 sent me a link to an ebay listing for a strange looking drawn Canseco oddball card that I had never seen before. To my knowledge, I have the most complete oddball Canseco card collection ever, so it is hard to find something like this that I don't have. To make things stranger, I watch ebay like a hawk and didn't see this card until I clicked the link I was sent.

I balked at the price tag, initially, but after doing some research, I'm glad I picked it up. The seller said in his 40 years of selling, he had never seen them before.

The card was made by someone named Michael Paraskevas. That name didn't mean much to me until I looked him up.

Michael is a talented artist who has created several children books and shows. Since I'm not a child, I don't know most of them, but I do know of this one:



Once I learned this, I was instantly intrigued.

Here is the card I picked up:



Paraskevas created 3 sets: 1988, 1989 and 1994. 1989 was the best looking and highest quality set ... it was also the only one that Canseco was in. I have only seen 1 or 2 people selling them, and since there isn't any real sales data to speak of, the seller put them up at $10-30 each, with Canseco being on the high end ... and they have been selling! I don't believe I have seen any multiples of any one player, either.

I think the buyers are lucky here, as they may not ever show up again, and there are still some big names on ebay left. Who knows how much people would be willing to buy these for with a little education!

As I'm told, back when these were made, they were never put up for sale. The only way you could get a set is if you wrote Paraskevas personally for one. For all we know, these sets could have had 100-500 made each, but perhaps only 5-10 people wrote in about them. The remaining stockpile may have been destroyed ... heck, compared to the full color picture cards from Topps/Donruss/Fleer/Score/Upper Deck, these don't look nearly as good, so the ones that ended up in the hands of collectors may have been trashed as well!

It is amazing how much the back story on a card can change the value in the eyes of collectors just like that . I'm very happy to have been able to have landed one!

[mouschi]

Uninspired. Generic. No Soul.

That is what I thought of the latest Canseco offering from Topps Tier One. A small picture of Canseco on the right, with a BIG open space for an autograph on the left. I picked up one that was cheap, but it had an autograph at the bottom so I picked up a copy that had his autograph smack dab in the middle.

My thoughts of the new Topps Series 2 Canseco cards continued along in the same vein as Teir One.

1) The first one is an SP and a sticker auto (which, by the way, I don't have an issue with sticker autos, if done correctly ... much like I have no problems w/out team logos if done correctly.)

Here is the picture of it. It is not ugly at all, but not eye popping.



Later that day, I saw the other Topps Series 2 Canseco autograph. This is # to 25.



My gut reaction was that I liked the first one better than the 2nd!

They look like the parents of the 1992 Score Impact Players card.



After a while though, they grew on me. I don't know why or how. Perhaps because they are genuine Topps cards that I have never seen before. I am not sure. A friend of mine said that these are a "necessary evil" - and for super collectors, I think that is a great way of putting it.

I don't think these are ugly designs at all. Upon initial inspection, I just felt like they were generic looking. Thankfully for me though, I have truly fallen in love with them. As a side note, I now think that a modified 1992 Score Impact Players card with an autograph may be a pretty dang good idea!

Both of the latest Topps Canseco cards are incoming, and I cannot wait to have them in hand. The Heart of the Order card has a base card which I have incoming as well.

As always, if you have any rare Canseco - let me know!

[mouschi]

Greetings, ladies and gentlemen! Welcome to this evening's edition of mouschipiece theatre ...

Tonight, we feature the forgotten jumbo card. It is forgotten, because it is in my closet, propped up by a wall, and was mostly covered by a 1980's Canseco punch out mask prior to my cleaning kick tonight.

I've got to hand it to Topps here. They did a top notch job on this. The fingerprints of craftsmanship are all over this. It truly has a unique touch.

The card? A mega 12x18 Topps Archives TOUCHED BY GREATNESS.

It is Hand Signed.
It is Hand Numberd.
and most importantly...
It is Hand Printed.



It is truly a great, great card. I normally don't dig oversized things, but Topps really hit is out of the park with this one.

[KCRfan1]

Really cool stuff! Have you reached out to Canseco to let him know what you are doing and how big of a fan you are?

[mouschi]

Originally Posted by KCRfan1

Really cool stuff! Have you reached out to Canseco to let him know what you are doing and how big of a fan you are?

Well, there was this one time I did ... http://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=206445

[KCRfan1]

That is F**KING amazing! Dream come true, only in real life you know! This is a story you can tell for the rest of your life. BTW, I hit a hail storm heading into NM about a month ago. Thought it was going to bust out my windshield, and made a bee line to an underpass, with 10 other cars.

[mouschi]

I had a picture of a nice new shiny rainbow autograph set I was going to post up today, but it will have to wait. Today, I got it a few squares that appear to have completed a neat little oddball chapter in my collection.

Based upon my research, these discs were produced by MSA (Mike Schechter Associates) for various grocery store chains and bakeries. MSA produced several sets of these in the 80's and 90's from Fantastic Sam's to give away for free whenever you got a haircut, to Hostess potato chips, to Iced Tea. You will see what appears to be the exact same disc several times, with different company brands on it.

Most/all (I don't know) came in 3 panel perforated form, and many had an offer to allow you to send in some discs along with money in the mail to receive a promotional press sheet calendar. depicting the entire set, full size These calendars typically had the disc artwork in square form.

As calendars are not too collectible, and difficult to store, many have been cut down to squares, and sold off. Many of the cut square backs have the exact same statistic information on the reverse side, just like the discs. Many try to sell these off as "proofs", but the fact of the matter is that they are highly collectible in cut disc form.

The discs and squares both range from fairly easy to obtain, to extremely tough to get your hands on.

To me, there isn't a mind-blowing story on these that I have uncovered. It is fascinating, nonetheless, to know how the discs were produced & distributed, and what had to happen to get the cut square promos. Here is what I believe to be the entire run of MSA discs/squares of Jose Canseco. If you know of any that I am missing, please let me know! (It looks like a King B disc / square pairing made its way into this evening's showcase as well...whoops!)







These are the ones that I don't believe to have had the calendar offer for, so therefore there are no sister disc squares to match them with. If you know this to be wrong though, let me know!

[swarmee]

Nice grab on all the bread cards; I have a small stack of Canseco's free to you if you PM me your mailing address.

[mouschi]

Originally Posted by swarmee

Nice grab on all the bread cards; I have a small stack of Canseco's free to you if you PM me your mailing address.

That is very nice of you, thanks!

[mouschi]

I have truly enjoyed the latest cards offered by Topps, Panini and Leaf. Though P & L are not able to show team logos, I love some of the stuff they put out. It probably "cheapens" the individual auto, but I am a sucker for rainbows, variations and color.

The other day, I picked up the last prizm color horizontal autograph, making it a complete run, aside from the 1/1.



There is the regular, checkered, camo, tye-dye, red/white/blue & the gold. I think they look great altogether!

[Mark70Z]

Really like the MSA discs and the associated square cuts. Reminds me of the MSA discs from '76 and '77. It continues to be fun trying not only to get all of the the regular back versions, but also trying to find all of the different stamped back versions. The Canseco one's you posted, to me, would be just as fun to hunt down just like the older versions.

[mouschi]

Originally Posted by Mark70Z

Really like the MSA discs and the associated square cuts. Reminds me of the MSA discs from '76 and '77. It continues to be fun trying not only to get all of the the regular back versions, but also trying to find all of the different stamped back versions. The Canseco one's you posted, to me, would be just as fun to hunt down just like the older versions.

Oh for sure! Heck I gother excited finding a few donruss and fleer variation cards the other day.

[mouschi]

About 16 years ago, you may recall Fleer putting out a set by the name of Brilliants. The base cards feature a chrome mirror like finish, and had a very premium look by itself. Very classy looking card. I remember seeing them from time to time whenever I would go through huge collections I purchased, and would find a Canseco. I would be ecstatic because it was so nice looking!

Later on down the road, when I got more serious into my PC, I sought out the parallels as well. They had a blue version, which was insanely beautiful - I was able to get my hands on that next, and they also had a gold version which was drop dead gorgeous. It was numbered to 99, and I think I've only seen one up for sale, which was from former Canseco supercollector @1st4040.



I LOVE these types of rainbows.

But, there is one final parallel to the set. A 24kt gold version with a rainbow type finish and numbered to /24. This was pie in the sky for me - especially when you have guys like Griffey selling for $1,500. Heck, even the Thome recently went for $400.

I've only seen 2 others, and they are from 2 other fellow Canseco super collectors who wouldn't give theirs up if their lives depended on it ... or for anything less than $500 I'd imagine

I just so happened to be having the right conversation with the right person at the right time. This person JUST pulled it from a pack! I made an offer and he accepted! Here is my precious ...



And now, all in a row ...



What's that you say? The pictures show my new treasure in different card holders? Well, I couldn't very well stage it with the others in a different holder, now could I? Don't judge me - you know you would do it too.

Anyway, I'm still mega hyped about my new pickup today. I didn't know if I would ever see one, and as it turns out - this particular copy has only been seen by the guy who pulled it, and me ... until now.

[KCRfan1]

That's GREAT! Was this one of the " whales "? Have you stumbled across any Canseco's that you did not know existed?

[ALR-bishop]

From 1984 to 1991 Topps produced Gallery of Champions "cards", small metal reproductions of 12 cards from the base set of that year. In most years the cards were produced in 3 forms, aluminum, bronze and silver and came in nice boxed sets. In most years, they produced a 4th premium card of one player which was given to dealers that sold a certain level of these products. In 1987 the player with 4 was Canseco. Below are images of the 3 sets from 1988 and the 4 Canseco's from 1987

[mouschi]

Originally Posted by ALR-bishop

From 1984 to 1991 Topps produced Gallery of Champions "cards", small metal reproductions of 12 cards from the base set of that year. In most years the cards were produced in 3 forms, aluminum, bronze and silver and came in nice boxed sets. In most years, they produced a 4th premium card of one player which was given to dealers that sold a certain level of these products. In 1987 the player with 4 was Canseco. Below are images of the 3 sets from 1988 and the 4 Canseco's from 1987

There are actually 4 total 1987 Cansecos as well as 4 total 1989 Cansecos - they are my smallest and heaviest pound for pound (ounce per ounce?) rainbow I have in my collection

[mouschi]

Originally Posted by KCRfan1

That's GREAT! Was this one of the " whales "? Have you stumbled across any Canseco's that you did not know existed?

Thanks! To be honest, I think I'd have to place this as a white whale. I live in a world where my oceans are filled with white whales. I am still relatively new at hardcore super collecting, so I've got a looooong ways to go. I have this one proudly displayed on my desk though, along with some others. So glad I got it!

[ALR-bishop]

Yep

[ALR-bishop]

[mouschi]

When Topps decided to bring Canseco back into the lineup in 2014, there was much rejoicing in the mouschi household. Gypsy Queen was a particularly smooth release, because it mixed an old-timey look & feel with on card autographs. In typical Topps fashion, you didn't just have one card of your player to get. You could have several.

Here is my little rainbow sans the 1/1.



They are numbered to /10, /25, /49 and the no number. Interestingly enough, it looks as though Topps was messing with us in some of these short prints by making the non numbered cards in a lower print run than some that are serial numbered. Believe it or not, the unnumbered short print was the last one I picked up. It really makes you wonder how many of them are out there.

[almostdone]

I find your search for Canseco items fascinating. I started doing that with Ken Griffey jr back in 1989. By 1993 it was impossible to keep up and this was before the Internet and eBay. I continued getting cards I liked but didn't have for a few years but ended up giving up when I stopped buying packs. I think I have around 600 different cards of him.

Anyway, my question was how many autographs of Canseco do you have total. I know about your meeting him and all the blanks you have for future projects but in total do you have a count?

I'm just curious. I am much more a vintage collector now and usually don't keep duplicates of anything but lately I have found I am collecting Stan Musial autographs. While I have a total of 5 Griffey autos I just made a deal with another board member and acquired my 6th Musial putting him in the lead.
Strange how collections grow and change over time without realizing it.

Drew

[mouschi]

Originally Posted by almostdone

I find your search for Canseco items fascinating. I started doing that with Ken Griffey jr back in 1989. By 1993 it was impossible to keep up and this was before the Internet and eBay. I continued getting cards I liked but didn't have for a few years but ended up giving up when I stopped buying packs. I think I have around 600 different cards of him.

Anyway, my question was how many autographs of Canseco do you have total. I know about your meeting him and all the blanks you have for future projects but in total do you have a count?

I'm just curious. I am much more a vintage collector now and usually don't keep duplicates of anything but lately I have found I am collecting Stan Musial autographs. While I have a total of 5 Griffey autos I just made a deal with another board member and acquired my 6th Musial putting him in the lead.
Strange how collections grow and change over time without realizing it.

Drew

Thanks for writing, Drew! If I had to guess, I'd say about 350 or so autos, with half of them being certified cards that were pack pulled at one time, and the other half being what I had him sign at his house.

I still think it is amazing how much the hobby has changed. It wasn't *too* terribly long ago that the crown jewel of a collection would be a single autograph. Now, we have to have hundreds? Jeesh.