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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!

Awesome. Didn't even know that existed.

When I saw the picture I just assumed it was another awesome card you made. It is even more awesome that it is a legitimate super-rare card. I don't ever recall seeing or hearing about these. Do you know if there is a Gary Carter version?

(04-22-2015, 02:10 PM)djohn Wrote: [ -> ]When I saw the picture I just assumed it was another awesome card you made. It is even more awesome that it is a legitimate super-rare card. I don't ever recall seeing or hearing about these. Do you know if there is a Gary Carter version?

Yes I believe so!

(04-22-2015, 02:14 PM)mouschi3 Wrote: [ -> ]Yes I believe so!

Great, yet another white whale to add to my list.

(04-22-2015, 03:59 PM)djohn Wrote: [ -> ]Great, yet another white whale to add to my list.

Oh, I've got an ocean full of them myself.

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.

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.

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!

Some big names still left for the cards by Paraskevas, however nothing of Gary Carter or Ivan Rodriguez for me. Thanks for the info on a card I didn't know about either.

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I did a little research and at least according to the below auction, the 1988 set had 33 cards with a print run of 250.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Modern-Baseball-...4d3264bbc8