So why do you collect Juan Gonzalez?
 

I've been a Texas Rangers fan since I was young, the Bobby Valentine, Toby Harrah, Pete O'Brien, Oddibe McDowell, Larry Parrish years. I listened to Ranger games religiously on the radio. Juan Gonzalez was the first real homegrown star that came through the system in my time. In 1992 I started picking up a few cards, when the '90 Upper Deck was desireable. I remember my friend had 9 of those cards and I thought he had it made. Having moved to California in '96 from Ft Worth, I never got to see Juan Gonzalez play in Arlington Stadium or at The Ballpark. I have seen him numerous times at Anaheim/Edison though and that is where I've obtained my autographs. I made all of my requests after batting practice along the field railing. Rafael and Ivan would never give me the time of day when asking them to sign something but Juan always obliged. I've always found Juan to be the biggest star who had no superstar ego about him. When Juan was traded to Detroit and behaved less than admirable about the situation, I soured a bit on my collecting. That plus the escalating numbers of parallels led me to stop collecting in 2002. I put all of my collection away until recently. I've gained a new perspective and a goal in regards to my collection. I've set a monthly budget that I hope increases my collection but at the same time doesn't make me feel like I am throwing money away. I won't be buying any $50 1/1 cards. My biggest goal is to increase the amount of cards, not to increase the high dollar cards. I will spend money on the older rare cards if the occasion arises though. I would really like to have one of the '93 Ted Williams Autographed cards.


I really enjoy going to baseball cards shows but eBay seems to have totally killed card shows in my area. I am hoping that other Juan Gonzalez collectors will utilize the services that I am offering so that we can better trade cards amongst ourselves. We undoubtedly have hundreds and thousands of extras that others probably need.

I started way back in 1993. Juan had just won his 1st home run title. I had been collecting cards since 1981, but now I was in college and I just wanted to focus on one player. Living in Ft. Worth I am a big Rangers fan. It was a tough choice between Juan and Pudge Rodriguez (I do have quite a few Pudge cards too). I cose Juan because of the huge power he displayed.

I started by going to shows and picking up cards I needed. I used to love attending shows and finding a great card in a dollar box. I would get anywhere from 20 to 50 new cards at every show. Nowadays that has all but disappeared. Shows are a joke. eBay and the internet have changed everything.

I began buying on eBay in 1998 under the name Juanstraw. I couldn't believe how many cards I found that I never even knew existed. I was able to print a comprehensive Juan list from Beckett.com. I thought it was all great.

I do miss the ability to get large quantities of needed cards at one time, but I can do some of that by buying on Beckett. It has gotten a lot harder lately. I have most of the common cards. Everything I need is very rare or autographed which means big bucks. I only spend between $50 and $100 a month on Juan. I will occassionally spend more if I see a rare card I really want.

My proudest cards are the four 2005 Diamond Kings Press Plates that I have. I got all four for $165.

Did you buy all four on eBay in different auctions?

Do you regret the decision to go with Juan over Pudge? Pudge is going to go in the hall of fame while I really don't think Juan has any chance. He will always be known as a malcontent, injury prone slugger who probably used steroids.

Personally, I think it is possible that he used steroids in 94-95 as Jose Canseco claims but I believe he gave it up long ago. Juan simply never changed in his output, he peaked when he was supposed to and never went crazy like Brady Anderson, Luis Gonzalez, Barry Bonds, Sammy, and so on.

The Diamond Kings Press Plates were issued with the 2005 DK Challege factory sets. Each set contained all four of one player's press plates. There were only 480 sets produced (One for each card in the base set). I saw the set with Juan in it selling on eBay and jumped all over it. To get a match set like that of press plates is almost unheard of and to do it in one purchase was equally amazing. I can't tell you how cool it is to see those cards next to each other. I will try to get pics uploaded soon. You can see them on my website under "Mike's Collection Pictures."

I do regret choosing Juan a little. I was actually a catcher growing up including into college so I always liked Pudge, but in 1995 when I got really serious about cards I had to choose and I thought Juan was a better HOF prospect.

I am glad I chose Juan now because there are sooooo many cards of Pudge that I would have no chance of keeping up on my budget. He has far surpassed Juan. The parallels alone over the last few years are ridiculous. I do like that Pudge is on the newer designs and it really is about the cards to me as much as the player.

Hey guys Istarted collecting Juan cards around 1991 I live in small town in alabama and I was a braves fan but they traded away Dale Murphy and he was ending his career so I started ona different guy..my friend collected Frank Thomas and his cousin collected Griffey, Jr. so I heard about this young superstar from Texas and started that way...I have around 1500 different cards now and around 10000 all told including some nice autos and a game used bat from his days in Cleveland ...well this is a great site and I will check back daily and I am interested in talking with all you guys too just email me whenever you geta chance thanks----Tony

I was browsing the older post and ran across this. Why I collect...

In 1991 I noticed that the industry was expanding with a whole lot of different brands, subsets, brands of brands, and etc. I figured then that collecting one player would be the way to go and cheaper. I liked the Astros and Rangers so I started my looking there. I wanted something unique about the player I was going to collect. I looked at all things...fanbased, attitudes, and all. Even checked their birthdates and ran across Juan's. I saw 10/16/69!!!! A few 10/20's but more of the latter. Even my wife thought that was neat that Juan had the same B-day as mine. 10/16/69!! So in 1991 the collecting started. Juan had it.....Power, Attitude, Fan/Kid friendly, and etc. I've enjoyed collecting him over years. AND never have regretted it. I still try to add more to this day, as most of the members of this site.

I started collecting Juan because I use to take my daughter to the local baseball card shop to bust packs. This was in 1990. She loved it. She was also a tom boy. Like most people who went to college, my mom threw out all of my baseball cards when I went to UCSB. One day, my daughter said, "dad why don't you buy some packs to open?" I bought a few but it seemed aimless just to collect a bunch of different cards. I could not afford at the time to collect my heros from the 1960's so I decided to pick a young player who could hit home runs. I picked Juan in 1990 and have been collecting ever since.

I started collecting baseball cards in 1988, but Juan became my favorite player in 1993 after he beat Griffey,Jr. in the Home Run Derby on ESPN. Being a Juan fan in the Pacific Northwest was brutal during the 1990s, but I never lost faith in the Rangers, nor Juan. I was devastated when he was traded to Detroit, and stopped collecting for a while, but returned to my collection in 2009. I am grateful to my fellow collectors on this site, and grateful to be able to find cards online instead of busting hundreds of packs, or waiting for trade shows to tour nearby. And yes, I absolutely believe that Juan should be in the Hall of Fame.

He was my first valuable rookie card I have ever owned. I started to learn more about him and where he is from and enjoyed all of his success over the years. Everybody I know always went for Ken Griffery, Frank Thomas, and Mark McGwire. Juan just seemed to be a different player and was hugely successful in his own right.