About
Hi, I’m Dan.
I buy and sell vintage baseball cards — and I’ve been doing it, on and off, since I was a kid with a pocket full of change and a corner market standing between me and school.
Where it started
I started collecting back in elementary school. There was a little corner market on the way to school, and any time I had a bit of money on me, I’d stop and grab a pack or two. As I got older I started going to card shows — at first just to buy. But by around ten, I was setting up as a seller. I’ll never forget laying out my cards at my very first table at theWillowbrook Mallin Mason City, Iowa. From that day on, baseball cards were never just a hobby to me. They became something a lot more.
Away, and back to vintage
I kept at it, on and off, through my early college years. Then life did what it does — I got older, started a family, and the hobby went on hold for a long while. In 2020 I found my way back. Like a lot of people then, I started with ultramodern — packs and boxes, chasing shiny serial-numbered cards. A few hundred dollars later (okay… maybe more), I realized modern just wasn’t for me. Then, almost on a whim, I picked up a 1968 Topps Hank Aaron at a card show here in Orlando — and that was it. I fell for vintage and haven’t looked back.
Buy well, sell honest
It didn’t take long to figure out that a hobby that only buys isn’t one that lasts. So I gave myself a rule: only pick up a card at a value I’m confident I can sell it for down the road. That same discipline is why I can give you a straight, fair number today. And I got to do the thing I loved as a kid all over again — building complete vintage sets in binders, page by page.
Doing it with my boys
These days I’m not doing it alone. My sons have gotten involved in Dan Trades Cards with me. My youngest loves coming along to the card shows, and he pitches in with packing and shipping when there’s an order to get out the door. Passing this on to them is honestly my favorite part.
