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I Just DESTROYED $1,500 Worth of Cards!

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mouschi

Featured Contributor, Bridging the Gap, Senior Mem
May 18, 2012
3,105
170
I have gone back and forth in my head several times about whether I should post this or not. I understand that baseball card purists may very well see the pictures I am about to show, and throw up all over their keyboard.


Why?


Because I destroyed $1,500 worth of baseball cards.


I wonder what is going on in your head right now. "Did he set a fire to 3 million 1988 donruss cards? (I guess that actually may not be a bad thing after all...somebody hit that drum snare!)


Perhaps you are thinking "Did he accidentally drop a handful of $10 cards in the toilet while he was peeing and looking at ca....errrr....multi-tasking?


You already know that I'm crazy enough to take a Canseco game used bat and have it cut up into tiny bits.


20150507_183720.jpg



You already know I'm looney enough to travel across 'Murica to have Jose Canseco wear jerseys and other things for me.


20150516_121746.jpg



So how crazy am I? (Actually, I guess I can blame this on my friend as to how crazy he is!)


The number of cards destroyed: 2.


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The fewer the cards destroyed that make up the $1,500 amount, the scarier this is, isn't it?


Let me give you a little back story here. A new friend came to me and asked for help putting together something unique. Something unique that has to do with Rod Carew. A booklet card that features Rod as a member of the Twins instead of the Angels.


What was to be created would be require the sacrifice of 3 virgins and 2 high end cards.


One is 1/2 and the other is a 1/1.


20150605_155316.jpg



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As you can see, the cards are very nice. A few things may come to mind: These 1/1 and 1/2 cards have a bunch of other cards that are the same (but with different players on them). The pictures of Carew are tiny, and they are of him as a member of the
Angels.


The guts it takes for someone to want to do this is admirable in a sense. With his actions, he is saying this is NOT for business. This is for my personal enjoyment. Forget the stock market role of baseball cards - I want something that *I* want for *MY* collection that has not been made.


As many of us are pseudo / wannabe hybrid dealer/collectors, we have to keep one thing in mind. Not all cards are going to be flipped. I'm learning this the hard way now with my own collection. Just because you want a card, doesn't mean it is available. Every single copy of a card may be locked up in people's collections for good! I say this because these two high end donor
cards may very well likely have never seen the light of day ever again.


Well, here is where the horror begins.


As the 2 cards were en route to my home, I had envisioned what it would be like to rip apart these cards. Would I put on
some rubber gloves and dip them in chemicals? Take scissors to them and cut right down the serial numbers just because I know that no one else on the planet will ever do this?


I mean seriously, who else would be doing something like this? This is like being the first man on the moon or something for me, here.


I decided to take extra care and split the cards up like so:


20150605_160024.jpg



Have you fainted yet?


20150605_162204.jpg



Yes, I opted to be careful with these because I figured just in case ... *just in case* (said twice for emphasis) he wanted to go back, there is a possibility of doing so. The sides of the card may look split, but with time and care, since these are PC items, they will look fantastic again though they may come back as "altered" if ever graded.


My guess is that this won't happen though.


So, with all that said, I introduce to you ....


The Rod Carew "Double Barrel" Booklet Card


20150608_131746.jpg



The inner windows have a gold foil border, and the inner binding has a gold foil inlay. I love how it came out! It fits great in a one-touch booklet holder, and is something I hope will be enjoyed for a long time to come.


So there ... I showed it. I showed what some people may see as a horrific train wreck. Monocles are being dropped and shattered on the ground all over America. The glasses of high-end collectors everywhere filled to the brim with champagne are being dropped without notice.


At the end of the day, I'm going to have to say I take it as a huge compliment that I was tasked with taking apart two high end cards from two different companies and trusted to design & produce something to replace them.


As for you, my valued reader: I sincerely hope that you like the end result as much as my friend and I do. If you do not, then I understand (though, please keep it to yourself - LOL!) . The next best thing that I can hope for is that you have been able to enjoy a story about something that may never be done again.
 
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Hawk8

Well-known member
Jul 13, 2013
8,376
229
Louisiana
If I would have won the Dawson 1/1 jumbo tag from his 1987 MVP jersey from the Cubs that had a picture of him on the card from the Expos, I was going to ask you to do a similar thing for me and put it on a card with him in a Cubs uni, glad I am not the only crazy one lol
 

mlbsalltimegreats

New member
Aug 7, 2008
6,772
3
If I would have won the Dawson 1/1 jumbo tag from his 1987 MVP jersey from the Cubs that had a picture of him on the card from the Expos, I was going to ask you to do a similar thing for me and put it on a card with him in a Cubs uni, glad I am not the only crazy one lol

Now im glad you dint win it ;) but you are correct the only knock on that card is that he is pictured in expos uni!
 

RStadlerASU22

Active member
Jan 2, 2013
8,881
11
Great stuff ! There are a lot of items I'd love to do this with , one day I hope to have the b@ll* to actually do it. A lot of 1/2 awesome cards out there which should be 100% awesome.

I hope he enjoys the piece. We now know 2 cards will NEVER hit the market again, EVER.

To the member who had it done , the Limited Barrel was that the one that was sold but you didn't think you'd get or did that come through ?

Ryan
 

mrmopar

Member
Jan 19, 2010
6,188
4,100
As a part time and much less serious Rod Carew collector, I can say that this was hard to swallow. The creation is cool, but I couldn't do that to cards that limited in nature, even if they were made that way "artificially" and more of them could be made in the future as long as full bats are there for the cutting. I think the signature cuts and special patch/barrel cards that have become somewhat common are fun to see and even own if you are one of the lucky ones, but I am still more of a fan of the entire item not being cut to begin with. I guess I'd rather see someone take an entire bat and do what you did with the Canseco bat than to see a rare card destroyed to make another card. It's surprisingly easier for me to accept a common bat or jersey card being hacked apart though. It's tough enough to see a full item cut cut up, but then to see the results of that process get cut up again? I mean, the card companies are doing that to begin with when they make barrel and nameplate cards, so why not I guess, but still hard to watch.

This makes me think of a much nicer and more professionally done, yet similar concept to the signa cuts. It's just funny to see an autographed card cut and made into a new autographed card, but the portion of the original card is often just a small, incomplete piece with terrible eye appeal. At least your creations tend to improve the eye appeal.
 

EricTownsend88

New member
Jun 13, 2014
48
0
Looks amazing! Honestly the cards you make look better then anything I've seen from Topps in the past decade. Great job dude you are very talented!
 

sportscardtheory

Active member
Aug 16, 2008
8,461
2
Buffalo, New York
I normally really enjoy your ideas and customs, Tanner, but this one feels off. The booklet you created, in my opinion, is no better than, if not worse than, the two cards on their own. So I guess it just kind of seems pointless.
 

mouschi

Featured Contributor, Bridging the Gap, Senior Mem
May 18, 2012
3,105
170
Thanks guys!
[MENTION=4047]mrmopar[/MENTION] - I completely get where you are coming from. I'm going to copy/paste what I said on another board about this, regarding cutting up a gamer (though modify it a bit to respond!):
======
There is actually a lot more to it than meets the eye when it comes to buying a game used bat to work for something like this.

In addition to finding/purchasing a gamer, I would suspect it would be an uphill battle to get a bat that is signed small enough that it would work for a card. Of course, the bat could have been chopped up and signed afterwards but I'm not sure how much Carew charges to sign, but you are looking at a good amount more of time and money to invest.

In addition to this, there is the concern of ruining the nameplate. When I had mine done, I was biting my nails because I was worried it would be ruined. Thankfully, mine came out good, but there were plenty of pieces that could not work. I'm fortunate the prime pieces came out nicely. But again, same here - it is pricey to chop up a bat, and it took a good amount of time.

Finally, some people just don't like the idea of cutting up gamers. Canseco's last game was 13 years ago, whereas Carew's was 30. I'd imagine they are more scarce to find.

Add this all up, and it takes a whole lot more than buying a bat to do this, not to mention all the time and hurdles. It is doable, but when all is said and done, it may have just come down to convenience.
=======
[MENTION=2360]sportscardtheory[/MENTION] - I'd be kidding myself if I thought there was not going to be any negative reactions to this. I was gritting my teeth posting this story almost as much as I was while actually making the card. It was just too big of a project not to post, and I figured people would get a kick out of it one way or the other. In the end, I love the design of the Topps & Leaf Carew cards, but I also love how the end result came out. From a design aspect, I think the goal was achieved - taking two beautiful Angels cards and creating one beautiful Twins booklet card.

Would I have done this to some Canseco bat barrel cards? Heck no - but then again, I'm cool with cards of him on the teams he played for that weren't the A's.
 

sportscardtheory

Active member
Aug 16, 2008
8,461
2
Buffalo, New York
Don't get me wrong, I don't mind that you did it. Your cards, your prerogative. I was merely commenting on the execution. The double booklet, to ME, isn't as pretty as the two cards on their own.
 

mouschi

Featured Contributor, Bridging the Gap, Senior Mem
May 18, 2012
3,105
170
If I would have won the Dawson 1/1 jumbo tag from his 1987 MVP jersey from the Cubs that had a picture of him on the card from the Expos, I was going to ask you to do a similar thing for me and put it on a card with him in a Cubs uni, glad I am not the only crazy one lol

Ahh - yes, that makes complete sense, and I understand that one. Thanks for thinking of me!
 
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16christensen16

New member
Mar 23, 2015
1,635
1
spencer iowa
As the owner of the two carew cards and the new custom book. I absolutely love it! It is amazing. Tanner did a incredible job. As I see it the cards are never leaving my collection so I would like to have what makes me happy
 

Musial Collector

Active member
Aug 7, 2008
5,671
2
Don't get me wrong, I don't mind that you did it. Your cards, your prerogative. I was merely commenting on the execution. The double booklet, to ME, isn't as pretty as the two cards on their own.

Not Tanners cards

By the way Tanner......love the booklet
Christensen........you have balls my friend, congrats on having your card for your collection
 

JoshHamilton

Well-known member
Aug 7, 2008
12,205
320
"It's preposterous that someone would destroy a unique piece of baseball history to make a card"
-every collector who wrote into Beckett's Reader's Write, 1999


"It's preposterous that someone would destroy a unique piece of baseball card history to make a custom"
-every collector on Blowout Cards' message board, 2015


#hashtagidiocracy
 

Dilferules

Well-known member
Aug 10, 2012
1,949
1,747
Auburn, WA
If it was your cards, I'd say you've "jumped the shark". But just doing it for somebody else that's fool enough to want it, I guess you're not quite there yet.
 

16christensen16

New member
Mar 23, 2015
1,635
1
spencer iowa
If it was your cards, I'd say you've "jumped the shark". But just doing it for somebody else that's fool enough to want it, I guess you're not quite there yet.

Why am I a fool? Because you wouldn't do it? Here is the thing they were MY cards....not yours. You will never hear me tell you what to do with your stuff.

I guess you are most likely correct and I'm a fool....I mean somebody who thinks about doing this must be a complete idiot.
 

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