The year is 1993 and I've been into cards for a couple years. We're in the middle of the junk-wax years, but I'm 10 years old and couldn't care less. Back then I mostly tried and failed to complete base sets, hunt down subsets I enjoyed like Topps Turn Back the Clock or Donruss Diamond Kings, and trade with friends. By 1995 I decided I wanted to focus my collecting on the team I enjoyed watching. There was nothing like digging through old boxes at my local card shop, pulling out Mariners that had stopped playing before I was even born. There were also regular card shows in my town which opened up many new opportunities for finding cards I needed. However growing up a couple hours outside Seattle meant everyone wanted Junior and ARod. So much of my efforts were focused on all the other guys. By the end of the 90's I'd amassed nearly 5,000 different cards and steadily climbing, especially with things like eBay expanding horizons even further.

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The year is 2001. While I still work on picking up fun parallels and inserts, I have a goal I'm very specifically looking to achieve. One of every base card there is. Occasionally there were short prints or variations but there wasn't much of that yet so it seemed like a very attainable goal. Then 2001 SPx came out. Ichiro is of course all the rage and to capitalize on that, Upper Deck puts out a base card with jersey swatch and an autograph. This has ruined my plan and made me thoroughly hate the direction the hobby has gone. So I hang it up, at least when it comes to cards. I don't get rid of anything, but I stop actively buying. I turn my attention to memorabilia. Nothing crazy, maybe a cheap game-used bat here, some autographs at FanFest there. Around this time I've moved to Seattle for college. While doing that I realize I could use a part time job and through a couple of random conversations, I land a gig as game-day staff for the Mariners.

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After one season as game-day staff, I am hired on full-time and end up staying with the team in that capacity until June 2005 (though I would stay on in a limited role until 2008). My collection, not surprisingly, grew quite a bit during that time. Between watching batting practice in an empty stadium (the only way I've ever caught a ball), to items the team gave us, to buying things we were trying to clearance out for next to nothing, I ended up with an abundance of pretty cool stuff. But by 2009 I was burned out. A series of major life events and a team that was filled with truly awful people left me uninterested in following day to day. Still I kept everything, but mostly boxed up in storage.

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The year is 2014. I'm grocery shopping and I wander past a shelf of sports cards. The only baseball thing at the time was 2014 Topps Chipz. I am amused at the idea of collectible poker chips so I buy a few packs. This turns into an occasional pickup on most shopping trips. And then I started researching and seeing what the hobby was like now. Oh how things had changed. I could find trade partners with ease, I had buying options unimaginable 15 years before. There were no longer 80 sets being released each year. Also I happened to have moved onto a job that allowed me resources to spend on a hobby. Now I was back, and for good this time. 

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So if you've read all this, thank you and welcome. Look around, read some musings about the baseball and the hobby, and hopefully enjoy seeing what I hope are some very interesting and unique pieces. And if you're looking to make a deal, even better. Drop me a line here or on any of the sites listed on the Contact page