Howdy Y'all!

Mike

Active member
Staff member
Well, I figured I should probably introduce myself first, so here goes...

My name is Mike. I live in a little podunk town in north Texas. I actually collected cards as a kid and loved it. I'd buy a pack of cards every chance I got, especially if they were basketball cards. I had a ton of cards. Then came high school (girls) and I completely forgot about those cards for years. Then, like a lot of the rest of us, when I decided to collect again I went looking for my cards to find that mom had either given them away or thrown them away.

So, I started collecting again sometime in 2008. I was buy/selling cards on eBay until I stumbled upon these trading card forums. I eventually became a member at Trading Card Central (TCC) and made a home there. I chose that site primarily because of what I observed to be the most friendly atmosphere. Today, I still feel like I made the right decision there. I thrived on that site for many years, eventually becoming the Content and Graphics Team Manager. Shortly after that, however, the site's owner went awol. Even today it's been three years since he's logged in to the site.

So, in 2012 I decided to branch out on my own and I started Trading Card Zone (TCZ). That went really good until my wife became ill and I closed the site down due to financial issues. Once my wife was well again I opened it back up, and it was rolling again. But then I purchased Sports Card Club (SCC) and merged TCZ into it. That was mistake #1 for TCZ. Mistake #2 for TCZ (now SCC) was I purchased The Bench Trading (The Bench). The Bench ended up taking all of my time away from SCC as I worked to get that site up and running again on some updated software. Once I had that site booming again I made the biggest mistake I've made in business and I sold that site. I almost instantly regretted that decision, making me want to quit the hobby. So, after contemplating just closing SCC down, I decided to give it to a friend I'd met on The Bench.

I, again, took some time away from the hobby then decided it was time to jump back in. I contemplated, and went back and forth on just helping them over at SCC or starting my own thing. I, ultimately, decided that I'd rather do my own thing...and here we are...SCA was born.

For those who don't know, I collect Tony Parker. I collect any and all Tony Parker cards as long as 1) I don't already have it 2) he's depicted with a Spurs uniform/logo and 3) it's not a multiplayer card. This has been my primary focus since re-starting my collection in 2008 and that remains today.

I also collect graded rookie cards of Vince Carter. My goal is to eventually have a copy of all of his rookies graded at least a 9 (PSA or BGS).

So, there you go. That's me and my collecting journey in a (large) nutshell. So, go digging through those commons and if you come across any Tony Parker cards (base, inserts, relics, etc), let me know and we'll see if we can work out a deal!
 
@Mike

Happy to be here, thanks for getting this up and running!!

Cheers!

Kevin

Welcome aboard, Kevin! It's actually been a plan for many years (since even before I originally purchased The Bench) but never culminated until now. I actually started on it back in March of '24 and, after many hours spent brainstorming and coding, just recently got the site ready to open the doors. My original idea was to just go at it solo but I enjoyed working with @grapler135s and @AndyDrummond on SCC so I thought I'd invite them to come join me here too. Super excited to have them, and all of you, on board in the beginning. I have several more features coming soon, so stay tuned!
 
Mike and Andy are fantastic guys, so glad they are joining up too...you are awesome, thanks for putting this all together....any chance of importing threads (autograph successes, gone but not forgotten) from SCC? I can start over, no worries, just thought I'd check before doing so!!
 
Mike and Andy are fantastic guys, so glad they are joining up too...you are awesome, thanks for putting this all together....any chance of importing threads (autograph successes, gone but not forgotten) from SCC? I can start over, no worries, just thought I'd check before doing so!!

Unfortunately, right now, there is no direct import for threads, but that's definitely something I can look in to. I thought about it a bit yesterday but didn't get a chance to dig into what it might take. I'll look at that at some point this afternoon and, if it's not too difficult, I'll try to get that done.

That said, it might be just as easy to do a quick copy/paste.
 
Unfortunately, right now, there is no direct import for threads, but that's definitely something I can look in to. I thought about it a bit yesterday but didn't get a chance to dig into what it might take. I'll look at that at some point this afternoon and, if it's not too difficult, I'll try to get that done.

That said, it might be just as easy to do a quick copy/paste.


Let me see what I can do with copy paste, that would be simple, I would think! Cheers!

Kevin
 
@Mike

If convenient, do you mind adding a section within the Autographs forum for successes? I was going to move photos of ttm and customs I have, or would you prefer that under Show and tell? Just let me know, thanks!
 
@Mike

If convenient, do you mind adding a section within the Autographs forum for successes? I was going to move photos of ttm and customs I have, or would you prefer that under Show and tell? Just let me know, thanks!

Here you go, Kevin:

 
Unfortunately, right now, there is no direct import for threads, but that's definitely something I can look in to. I thought about it a bit yesterday but didn't get a chance to dig into what it might take. I'll look at that at some point this afternoon and, if it's not too difficult, I'll try to get that done.

That said, it might be just as easy to do a quick copy/paste.

@Mike

Thanks so much for adding the new TTM section to the Autographs Forum! I added several threads yesterday with photos, and will start moving addresses in as soon as my new batch of TTM requests roll in, I thought that would be easier than going back several years if people have moved, changed agencies, etc.

Thanks again, cheers!

Kevin
 
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