My visit with Chris McAbee

[Gonzaleznut]

I had the pleasure of going over to Chris's (mcabee1) house today. He and I live about 45 minutes apart, but here in the DFW area that drive never leaves city.

Chris and I had gotten together a couple of times before, but this was the first time for me to go to his turf. I took over most of my collection to show off to him . We perused my cards for a while and then I started looking through what he has.

He has a binder with everything up thru 1996. I think he is missing only a dozen or so cards up thru '96. There were several eye poppers. He has several Rangers Team Issued Cards that I had never seen before. Two of which are the elusive Dr Pepper cards from '96 and '97 I think. Several Commemerative sheets that I had never seen before.

He has a 1990 Topps R&L China Topps Porcelin Card serial numbered to 1000. I didn't see if it was made in 1990 or in 1993. I also saw his 1993 R&L China Commemerative Plate with the Topps card on it and it is outlined in gold.

Needless to say it was all very impressive and we had a good time. I got 15 new cards for my collection plus a great print sold at the Ballpark in Arlington celebrating the opening of the park in 1994. It has about a dozen Rangers on it including Juan. It is huge...just larger than a big poster.

I also got his extra 1995 Rangers Crayola No Logo (which might just be the regular 1995 Rangers Team Issue card). http://www.juangone.com/pictures.php?cardid=95833
I would love to know if anyone else has it?

Chris and I talked a little about his lack of involvement with this site. His stance is that Juan is not his number one collecting priority. In fact, he might not even be #2. Therefore, he doesn't feel like expending the energy to get his list up to date and keep it current. I am going to work on getting him over to my house within the next month or two and scan in some of the cards we are missing, especially the early ones.

If you would like to ask me any questions about our visit just post it here and I will answer.

[jjt111]

Mike,

He has expressed interest in selling his collection as a whole. I'm sure it is because of his lack of interest in the Juan collection. Why do you think that he doesn't break it up at an item at a time?

Jonas

[Gonzaleznut]

Originally Posted by jjt111

Mike,

He has expressed interest in selling his collection as a whole. I'm sure it is because of his lack of interest in the Juan collection. Why do you think that he doesn't break it up at an item at a time?

Jonas

He is interested in selling it . He would sell all of his Juan items for $7,500. I doubt he would ever break it up because of the great hassle in doing so.

[jjt111]

But I wouldn't think any body would buy it in whole. Most of the fun is in the hunt. So I guess he'll always be a Gonzalez collector and that is good as he spent as much time as anyone in collecting them.

[Gonzaleznut]

Originally Posted by jjt111

But I wouldn't think any body would buy it in whole. Most of the fun is in the hunt. So I guess he'll always be a Gonzalez collector and that is good as he spent as much time as anyone in collecting them.

I think you are right...no one would buy it whole because of all the dupes you would get. I'd bet he only has 100-200 cards I need, if that and I darn sure don't want all those dupes.

[Igor]

I know this thread is old, but isn't his main collecting interest Hank Blalock? I know that I've battled him quite a bit in the past on Blalock items - seems he wins most.

[Gonzaleznut]

Actually...his main collecting interest is Rusty Greer, but being from the Metroplex he does collect several current and former Rangers including Hank Blalock, Mark Teixeira, Kevin Mench, Rusty Greer, Juan Gonzalez and several other minor stars.

[538]

In the old days, there were not that many of us collecting Juan Gonzalez regularly. Chris had to spend a lot of hours to get the cards that he has from 1987 through 1996. I had many of the same hassles. I think part of the reason that he will not split up the collection is that he has pride in the fact that he does have more or less a complete collection. I think next to my set, Chris may have as many weird items as I do. Sometimes it is not about the money. IF he gets $7,500 I do not think that he will break even financially. It was expensive in the old days and to add even one more card to the collection was a big deal. This was in the real old days before Ebay. Ebay changed the collecting landscape. Prior to Ebay, on business trips across the country, I spent many hours in baseball shops looking to add even one Juan card to the collection. My list only shows 300 cards but I have a lot more than that all over the house.