The Story Behind the Collection
A Lifelong Passion
I discovered Magic: The Gathering in early 1994, at a time when my life was perfectly aligned for it. Fresh out of university, 28 years old, with a comfortable income and no family commitments yet - I had both the means and the freedom to pursue a passion seriously.
But Magic wasn't just a game to me. It arrived at the intersection of everything I had loved since childhood: Dungeons & Dragons, the early RPGs on Apple II, the entire world of Heroic Fantasy that had shaped my imagination since the 1980s. When I first held a Magic card, I already spoke the language.
The most significant pieces of this collection came through Bill, a seasoned collector and trader based in Baltimore - at a time when transatlantic communication meant long international phone calls and a great deal of trust. Through him, I acquired the complete Beta set, Unlimited, Arabian Nights, and Legends. No email, no eBay. Just two collectors who took each other at their word.
Through the mid-to-late 1990s, I played in official tournaments and informal gatherings at a local bar with friends. Then came a professional reorientation, a change of city, and eventually - the best thing that ever happened to me - a wife and children. Magic gradually left my life, and the collection was carefully stored away: sleeved, dark, smoke-free, untouched.
Years passed. And then, about four or five years ago, I came to a quiet realization: none of my children had any interest in Magic. This collection - assembled with care, preserved with devotion - risked fading into obscurity. Worse, if something happened to me, my family - through no fault of their own - would have had no idea of its true value, and this collection could simply have disappeared.
That thought stayed with me. It took a few more years, and a conversation about what modern tools can do, before I finally built this site - and made the decision I had been postponing for too long.
This collection deserves to go to someone who understands what it represents. I hope that person is you.
