The $107,868 Lesson, My Book, and Starting Over

[mouschi]

If you haven't noticed, I haven't been very active anywhere online for a while.* In fact, November marks the first month in SEVEN YEARS that I didn't write at least one article.* There is a reason for that.* In October, my family suffered a terrible loss by losing my father.* Life tends to stand still when something like this happens - especially when you are as close to someone like we all were to him.* While things are getting better a little day by day, dad passing away left a huge hole in all of our hearts.



We are very thankful that we had him in our lives.

My wife and I went back and forth as to if we should tell him and mom some big news.

Together, we decided to give them the shock of a lifetime.



We are pregnant!* It has been a long,*past several weeks to wait and tell everyone.* The last time we were pregnant, my wife was 21 and I was 22.* When baby #2 arrives, she will be 38 and I will be 39.* If this kid is half as awesome as our first born, we will be ecstatic * There will be a 16 1/2 year gap between the two.

Life recently has been full of extreme sorrows, incredible joys and everything in between over the past few months.* I feel like someone strapped me to a chair and has been spinning me perpetually.* We are all just so grateful that we were able to tell him about his 2nd grandchild coming into the world.* We told him the last time we saw him together as a family, just days before he passed away.

In addition to this, I've had my hands full with work, selling my collection, and writing my book.* Every time I get online and talk cards with people, the same questions come up.* "How is the selling coming along?" and "When will the book be finished?"* Here is an update on everything:

Update on Selling my Collection

For years, I've wanted to write a book.* In fact, I started writing it in 2015.* It has been a labor of love that has taken countless hours and many nights, with the end changing from month to month. This book, rather, the lessons I learned in this book - cost me $107,868.* This is the cumulative amount I paid for my collection during my*Supercollecting journey.* To put things into perspective, this is significantly more money than Jose Canseco himself received for playing his first full year of baseball when he was rookie of the year!* Though the profits I made from wheeling and dealing cards over the years covered the entire amount I spent, it is still a lot of money - especially for a collection of one player.

Many have asked me how big of a financial loss I was anticipating when all was said and done.* About two months ago, I brought the remainder of my Jose Canseco baseball card collection to Fed Ex.* This is what $14,000 worth of Jose Canseco baseball cards in boxes looks like:



These boxes represent the majority of the rest of my cards I had for sale.* With this picture, I can happily say that not only have I broken even, I have also turned a profit - all inside of four months!* I was extremely excited about this because I've been prepared for it to take years to sell everything.* This leads me to my next piece of news ...

My Book is Finished and Available!

Because I sold everything and turned a profit, I was able to document how I did it in my new book, Confessions of a Baseball Card Addict.

Available for sale here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1731198469...qid=1545227495



My initial plan was just to write a book about my adventures in cardboard, but it morphed into something more than just a book for entertainment purposes.* I used it to document how I became a dedicated Supercollector and what strategies I employed to sell a six-figure collection focused on a single player while turning a profit.

I did this because I truly hope that you can read it and not just be entertained, but also have a guide to help you every step of the way if you plan on starting collecting, want to change your collecting focus or hope to sell your collection.

While my Supercollecting journey is over, my time in our hobby is not.* Frankly, I've missed you.* I've missed being in conversations about the hobby and the thrill of chasing cards.* If you have been reading my articles since the time I was heavy into reselling, you know that I love to practice what I call Cardboard Alchemy:* The art of selling a collection for profit, and keeping some meaningful left-over cards for free.

This is exactly what I did with my Canseco collection, and*I'm extremely excited to show you what my post-supercollection collection looks like!* Here is the first part of it in binders:



I decided to build up an entire run of base and insert cards.* Instead of storing them in boxes, I opted to do what I always wanted, and store them in pages.



These binders are from Unikeep for about $16 each.* They feature a clamshell design and can be stored upright.** Their website allows you to customize, so I made four of them:* Volumes 1-4, complete with custom graphics on the front, back, and spine!



You will not find any parallels in these binders.* Just a single, base representation for all base/inserts that came out.* This should only take a few dollars per release to keep up with, instead of hundreds or thousands to secure all 20 different colored autographed cards from each release.



I have found a tremendous amount of joy and satisfaction in my new binders (I still need about 30 cards to complete the run).* It will be fun chasing them again - this time, without the stress of worrying about missing out on a super rare card.* I used to look at my collection on my website.* Now, I find myself pulling out a binder and happily turning the pages, just like I did when I was a kid.

I have also found a tremendous amount of joy in many cards that I didn't look at twice as a Supercollector. Some extremely beautiful cards would go unnoticed in my collection because I was so focused on landing the next plain, base card with a 1/1 stamp on it.

Shown below are many of the cards I've picked up again that I love, using the profits of selling my collection. Refractors, die cuts, museums, artist proofs, elites, platinums, mirrors, acetates, and more are now rightfully given a prominent place in my collection that they never could have before.* Some were seeded at one per pack, where others are numbered to /5.* Some are easy to get, where others are one of a kind proofs.* They all share a commonality of being beautiful or meaningful to me.* I will continue to add to this as well, as I see things that catch my eye.



But that wasn't all that I kept

When I realized I'd be able to turn a profit, I asked myself a question:* "What cards would I rescue from a burning house, if I could only take a handful?"* That removed all interest in cards due to the "necessity" of completing rainbows or just because they were special to others.* I found out that I fell hard for wild patch cards and the parallels and inserts of the '90s to '00s.* Shown below is a picture of some of my favorites.* Some of them I never sold, whereas others I did sell and had to buy back using the profits from selling my collection.

...Continued on the next page.....