Bo Jackson Collector

I have been collecting Bo Jackson since Oct 2002, but have a fairly extensive collection. I have done a little trading and selling of my extra Bo cards, but have been primarily a buyer. I am trying to sell some of my spare Bo cards so I can buy the newest Bo cards. I am particularly interested in oddball Bo cards and in game-used Jersey, Bat, Autographed (from factory or COA), and serial numbered Bo cards.

I have picked up some non-Bo cards along the way and have a trade list page on this site, along with a Bo trade page. There will also be a few sets I put together along the way and I will make separate pages for the sets I assemble showing both the cards I need and the spares I have to trade.

If I ever hit the lottery, I'd like to also collect Frank Thomas, Charles Barkley, Carnell "Cadillac" Williams, Ronnie Brown, and other Auburn greats. For now, I can only afford to collect Bo (or possibly trade my non-Bo cards for the AU others). As of Jan 2006, Upper Deck is killing me with their bazillion variations of "Ultimate" and "Exquisite" (Kind of like Donruss/Leaf did last year, but UD/SP cards are a LOT more expensive). There's no way for the average player collector to keep up without getting a second mortgage on the house. I'm sure my Bo Wish List is gonna grow substantially because of UD/SP. The Exquisite packs are selling for $500-$600 for 6 cards! Get real Upper Deck!

I also have numerous Beckett (BGS) graded Bo cards. If you have any, please let me know. I even have a few extra's if interested in buying/trading..

I consider Bo Jackson to be one of the greatest athletes of all time, both college and professional.  Furthermore, I consider him THE greatest dual sport (Football & Baseball) athlete of all times (Deion who?).  Unfortunately, his career was cut short by a devastating injury.  Who knows how many records Bo would've broken.  There are only a handful of people seriously collect Bo Jackson memorabilia (less than 10 that I know of).  Why others collect him I can't say, but I attended Auburn University from 1982-1986 with Bo.  I was able to shake his hand several times before and after football games on the concourse at Auburn, but I had never collected sports memorabilia so (regrettfully) I never got anything autographed during that time (Hindsight's 20/20, huh?).  After I graduated, Bo's cards were too expensive for my newlywed budget so I just watched his performances and dreamed of one day collecting his memorabilia.

I have since been able to start collecting his cards and even got his autograph (in person) in my 1986 Auburn Yearbook and on a serial (jersey) numbered Football card (2001 Fleer Legacy 3rd Quarter #/50!).  My only regret about getting his autograph is not being able to talk to him (i.e., short conversation).  When he's doing one of these signings for Farm Fresh or Sports Illustrated (or whoever), he charges for the autographs (naturally) and you can only get one thing autographed for your money per person (without getting back in line, if there's time), and the promoters of the event are rushing everyone through.  At a Sports Illustrated signing in 2003 at Auburn, I almost didn't get his autograph after standing in line for over 2 hours, and after one of the Sports Illustrated officials told us that we would be the last few people to get his autograph.  Luckily, after raising our voices at the SI workers and telling them that we would not have waited in line for over 2 hours if they hadn't told us we'd get our items autographed, they agreed to have Bo stay a few minutes longer than scheduled to sign our items... Thank God!  Next time, I'm getting there earlier so I can be one of the first in line!

One day, when I can afford it, I'd also like to have a Bo Jackson Bat, Glove, Helmet, Hats, Jerseys (from various teams), and other memorabilia (all autographed of course). For now, I am concentrating on collecting his sports cards.  I wish the sports card companies would make more Raiders or White Sox cards, but they seem to be stuck on Royals (especially Donruss). I also wish they'd stop making serial numbered cards #1/1 and #/3 and #/5.  All that does is drive up the prices and keep his true fans from being able to get ALL of his cards (unless you're rich or in debt).

UPDATE: Be careful what you wish for, you may just get it. Leaf (2004) went absolutely nuts with the variations of Bo Jackson football and Baseball cards. All that did was drive the prices down because a few Bo collectors actually quit collecting Bo because they couldn't keep up with all the variations. I have even slowed way down because I couldn't afford to keep up. I have also considered not collecting Leaf because they lost their minds and flooded the market with Bo cards.

UPDATE 2: Looks like Donruss/Leaf got what they deserved. Now, it appears that Upper Deck has lost their minds with the Ultimate Collection and especially the Exquisite cards -- $500+ per 5-card pack?!! Are they Totally Nuts?!!!