The Life, Death & Resurrection of Mark Anderson

[GehrigFan]

Well... I realize this is a strange thread, but I know I have a lot of friends on here who have not heard or seen ANYTHING about me since the first month of the year. I am not kidding when I say I can write a 1000-page book about this year, so here is the EXTREMELY short version...

For those who do not know me, I am 45 years old, opened my first card store when I was 18, and since 1997 have worked for:

* James Spence Authentication (Still there as inactive but likely to never work again) - 2015 to present

* Heritage Auctions (Focused on sports memorabilia) - 2014-15

* COMC.com (Focused on helping owner Tim Getsch with growing the company but commuting from Dallas to Seattle was a bit much!) - 2013

* Beckett (Started as Price Analyst, Writer, first person to join BGS/BVG, ended as co-leader of entire office) - 1997-2013




SUPER SHORT VERSION OF MY LAST 9.5 MONTHS:

• I went to a regular neurologist appointment the third week of January and one week later went back for a follow-up. That day, January 31st, they asked me to go to the ER for a quick CT scan of something they didn’t think was a big issue. Well, the one day scan turned into 2+ months in the hospital trying to figure out the problem. Basically, they were supposed to do brain MRI’s with and without contrast, but forgot to do the contrast version.

• By March, I had become paralyzed on my entire right side. They put me on a different hospital floor and were just supposed to feed me for a night and March 3rd would try to figure me out again. The only rules were to guard what I ate and have a nurse watch while I ate. My wife went home to get something, and when she got back, they had ignored both rules and I was surrounded by 12 doctors. When my wife came back, they called her in and said she needed to say goodbye to me as I had died from the food intake. She went ballistic on them, so they tried some more things and brought me back to life. For the next moth I was on tubes and medications to keep me from remembering anything but I did come back "to life".

• Finally, at the start of April I was awake again and my wife and I told them to send me to their other hospital (UTSW - Clements) to have them try to determine my problem. They finally agreed, and the first day I was there they determined I had brain cancer. Turns out, it is the contrast version of the brain MRI that tells them if you have brain cancer so they could have known over two months prior. For the next 7 months, I was still stuck in both hospitals for 26 rounds of chemotherapy (9 different types) plus three hospices to short-term heal from the chemo. I finally had the last round lasting three weeks in September and was allowed to leave a week ago.

• Most chemo sessions were okay, except #18, and then the last round was amazingly horrid. While every day was spent trying to heal and re-grow (couldn’t even sit up, much less stand or walk, etc.), my first thought of the final therapy was how easy it seemed. But seven days after the last chemo, I suddenly had 5-6 horrible problems pop up (mouth unable to move or eat, passing out while practicing walking, losing 100% of my hair in about a 15 minute period, etc). They tested them all and said they were NOT the things they feared could happen – just common issues from that chemo, and they healed in 7-10 days... well, except the hair. People say I look like Paul Schaffer now!

• Unfortunately, the last week has been the worst yet. They still say it should heal in a couple months, but literally, the pain and lack of ANY strength to do ANYTHING has me praying God might take me home. But I hope it heals and I can start investing into my daughter and wife again soon.

Again, there are thousands of things I could add to this, but I know it would bore you. I also will say that at the end of August, God finally reached a 100% point in my life where I know beyond a doubt that I am okay if he takes me in 3 months, 3 years, or 30 years.


I will soon be posting some questions and very poor original artwork on my thoughts for a website to sell my card collection. Although I never wanted to sell, at this point it is a necessity to provide for my amazing wife and sweet 5-year-old daughter.

Mark

[swarmee]

Welcome back sir. You have lived an interesting life. Since you've been involved with COMC, Beckett, and auctionhouses, I would think you would know exactly what to do with your collection.
Invest In Baseball (Sean Bassik) and others buy whole collections and part them out, so consider them as well.

[KCRfan1]

I am wishing you well Mark, and be positive as best you can! You have two great girls in your life that are there for you!!!!

I am a stage 4 cancer survivor, and while I went thru A LOT, I cannot begin to relate what you have been thru. I understand the pain and lack of strength / energy, but that's relative and affects us differently.

I'm sure there are many other cancer survivors on the board who are will to offer encouragement.

Usually we can bulldog our way thru the physical stuff, nothing prepares us for the mental toll.

You're welcome to pm me if you want to talk / email.

Hang in there, you have come a long ways!

[GehrigFan]

Hi Lou - did you suffer post-chemo fatigue? That is the #1 problem where I cannot sleep, but all day I also literally just hate being alive because I can barely even walk. Los of Google info on this, but they all seem to say it can last months or years and there are no real cures or medications.

[GehrigFan]

John, yes, I have actually bought from Sean in the past as well as traded him a buttload for my second Lou Gehrig RC (1925 W590)! I could consider a complete sale, but I also think maximizing my finances is critical here. I owe $1-$2 million for medical, which we can never pay, and we have about $10K left total to live on :-(

Originally Posted by swarmee

Welcome back sir. You have lived an interesting life. Since you've been involved with COMC, Beckett, and auctionhouses, I would think you would know exactly what to do with your collection.
Invest In Baseball (Sean Bassik) and others buy whole collections and part them out, so consider them as well.

[BruceinGa]

Wishing you the best!

[swarmee]

Well, being in Dallas and close to many on this board, it may be possible to consign many to the local players who set up or rent table space at local card shows. In your current debt, it would probably be difficult to maximize value if you can't afford grading at PSA or BGS, and the bulk submission for each would have your cards back in two months or more. Current BGS bulk submissions are taking an average of 83 business days.
Call JustCollect or the other wholesale businesses and play them against each other. Some will fly to see your collection and make an offer on the whole amount.

[kailes2872]

Mark,
Sorry to hear of your struggles and the crazy, seemingly incompetence of your care and recovery.

You have been helpful to me in my journey and I always look for your picture when I receive any Heritage materials. I know in the past you had said that you had a similar condition to Lou Gehrig, but not exactly ALS (If I recall correctly), so I was afraid that your condition had taken a turn for the worse.

My next big projects are 53 Topps, 52 Bowman, 53-55 Red Man, 54 Red Heart Pet, and some football and basketball sets in the '70s. I am really not going to be actively looking until the spring, but if you have those full sets, let me know and I will see what I can do to pull some stuff forward and maximize your value.

However, if I recall, you had some autographed HOF rookies and a lot of prewar, so it might be a different collecting focus than mine.

At any rate, I wish you the best and pray for your recovery.

God Bless
Kevin

[Sf24]

Mark, I feel for you and your family. I am a 2 time cancer survivor, so it can be done. The fatigue will go away over time. Music helped me get through the rough times. I put on a set of headphones and put on my favorites. Thoughts and prayers are with you and your family.

[GehrigFan]

Man, installed some "Tapatalk" app which they claimed was so much better. Frankly, I don't know how to see the different forum titles, don't know how to post without it *appearing* to put every post by every person on top (I hope that is just it trying to *show* me the posts), etc.

At least I can now pretend every dumb thing I do is just because of the brain cancer!!!

Sent from my Moto G (5) Plus using Tapatalk

[Rich Klein]

The funny thing was that was the ONLY article I wrote for that site. I will stress Patrick is very dedicated to the hobby, we did a great interview for his site earlier this year and the fact I only wrote one article for the site implies nothing bad at all about him.

Instead, I was honored to be able to use his forum to post that article about Mark. I know many of us were worried about him, and rightly so as it turned out, and I just wanted to be able to state which many of us were thinking. So, I'm grateful for Patrick for doing the heavy lifting in finding photos and making the article look as good as it was.

Originally when I wrote that, I thought that was amongst the worst thing I ever wrote. After several re-reads, I realized I got it exactly right and I was honored to be the vessel to honor Mark while he was still living.

And, on a side note, writing that article, got my writing genes back into gear and I'm now doing a monthly column for GTS distributors. It's called Klein's Korner and last night I wrote my new year's resolution column. I actually talk about an obscure pre-war German non-sports set which I've enjoyed fleshing out the checklist during the past year.

So, I owe Mark not only for his 20 years of friendship but also for being the trigger to get me to write again.

Rich

P.S. One of Mark's friends has volunteered to pay for his tables at any show Mark chooses to set up at. So, when you get better Mark, we have table(s) for you.

[NYYFan63]

Originally Posted by GehrigFan

Well... I realize this is a strange thread, but I know I have a lot of friends on here who have not heard or seen ANYTHING about me since the first month of the year. I am not kidding when I say I can write a 1000-page book about this year, so here is the EXTREMELY short version...



For those who do not know me, I am 45 years old, opened my first card store when I was 18, and since 1997 have worked for:



* James Spence Authentication (Still there as inactive but likely to never work again) - 2015 to present



* Heritage Auctions (Focused on sports memorabilia) - 2014-15



* COMC.com (Focused on helping owner Tim Getsch with growing the company but commuting from Dallas to Seattle was a bit much!) - 2013



* Beckett (Started as Price Analyst, Writer, first person to join BGS/BVG, ended as co-leader of entire office) - 1997-2013









SUPER SHORT VERSION OF MY LAST 9.5 MONTHS:



• I went to a regular neurologist appointment the third week of January and one week later went back for a follow-up. That day, January 31st, they asked me to go to the ER for a quick CT scan of something they didn’t think was a big issue. Well, the one day scan turned into 2+ months in the hospital trying to figure out the problem. Basically, they were supposed to do brain MRI’s with and without contrast, but forgot to do the contrast version.



• By March, I had become paralyzed on my entire right side. They put me on a different hospital floor and were just supposed to feed me for a night and March 3rd would try to figure me out again. The only rules were to guard what I ate and have a nurse watch while I ate. My wife went home to get something, and when she got back, they had ignored both rules and I was surrounded by 12 doctors. When my wife came back, they called her in and said she needed to say goodbye to me as I had died from the food intake. She went ballistic on them, so they tried some more things and brought me back to life. For the next moth I was on tubes and medications to keep me from remembering anything but I did come back "to life".



• Finally, at the start of April I was awake again and my wife and I told them to send me to their other hospital (UTSW - Clements) to have them try to determine my problem. They finally agreed, and the first day I was there they determined I had brain cancer. Turns out, it is the contrast version of the brain MRI that tells them if you have brain cancer so they could have known over two months prior. For the next 7 months, I was still stuck in both hospitals for 26 rounds of chemotherapy (9 different types) plus three hospices to short-term heal from the chemo. I finally had the last round lasting three weeks in September and was allowed to leave a week ago.



• Most chemo sessions were okay, except #18, and then the last round was amazingly horrid. While every day was spent trying to heal and re-grow (couldn’t even sit up, much less stand or walk, etc.), my first thought of the final therapy was how easy it seemed. But seven days after the last chemo, I suddenly had 5-6 horrible problems pop up (mouth unable to move or eat, passing out while practicing walking, losing 100% of my hair in about a 15 minute period, etc). They tested them all and said they were NOT the things they feared could happen – just common issues from that chemo, and they healed in 7-10 days... well, except the hair. People say I look like Paul Schaffer now!



• Unfortunately, the last week has been the worst yet. They still say it should heal in a couple months, but literally, the pain and lack of ANY strength to do ANYTHING has me praying God might take me home. But I hope it heals and I can start investing into my daughter and wife again soon.



Again, there are thousands of things I could add to this, but I know it would bore you. I also will say that at the end of August, God finally reached a 100% point in my life where I know beyond a doubt that I am okay if he takes me in 3 months, 3 years, or 30 years.





I will soon be posting some questions and very poor original artwork on my thoughts for a website to sell my card collection. Although I never wanted to sell, at this point it is a necessity to provide for my amazing wife and sweet 5-year-old daughter.



Mark

Mark - I just joined the board a couple weeks ago but will keep you in my prayers.

God Bless!

Rob


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk