I have been collecting baseball cards since I was about 8 years old. I can vividly recall buying packs and even saving up to buy one entire box of 1987 Topps- oh those wood borders! In 1989, when Upper Deck first came on the scene, I traded several 87T Bo Jackson, Jose Canseco, Will Clark, and even a Mark McGwire RC to a kid in my class who had pulled an UD Ken Griffey Jr, RC. It took me a month to pry the Griffey away from him! I guess from then on I was hooked.
My early to mid 90's forays into player collecting included Tim Salmon, Wade Boggs, Travis Fryman, Greg Maddux, and Ken Griffey Jr. After college around 2000 or so I started with Manny Ramirez...and now 16 years later I'm still with him, and it hasn't always been easy. I started collecting his PSA graded RC's, feeling they were a good investment as I projected him to have a chance at the vaunted 500 career HR mark. Manny's cards always seemed to me to be undervalued given his production and celebrity- good or bad. I guess I still feel that way now that he has completed his career with 555 taters.
My focus now is on filling out my 1990's Manny collection. I currently have about 98% of his cards from 1991-1999. I am always looking for rare 90's inserts, please check my wantlist page.
I was interviewed for and photos from my collection were featured in the cover story of PSA's February 2009 Sports Card Market Report magazine. The magazine cover is pictured on the left and the article can be viewed on the article page.
I guess the PSA grading aspect of my collection just fits with my personality. I have always been picky about card condition, preferring cards that have good centering, eye appeal, and sharp corners. I think having PSA around to "grade" cards separates my collection from others in that I am willing to buy and sell a few copies of each card to make sure the copy in my collection is a mint one.
I was lucky enough to cross paths with a few other very serious Manny collectors and their collections at a time when they were starting to sell off all or part of their collections. This was just as I was getting more serious about my collection. The quality and condition of my collection owes a lot to their collections.
I currently have the top Manny Ramirez master set on the PSA registry, please take a few minutes to view some scans if you like!.
If you'd like to contact me about this collection or about any Manny Ramirez cards in particular, drop me a line at carr24 at gmail dot com or via FCB PM to carrsallstars. Thanks for visiting.
-Jamie