THE HEIRLOOM INDEX

The card that started it

A framed print of a 2020 Panini Flux Anthony Edwards rookie card, captioned “Everett’s first card”, with a handwritten note beneath it recording the card show where it was found
A first card show, written down before anyone forgot the date. This is the ruled version, which is an option — the finished example further down is the clean one.

Somebody was handed a card, or pulled one out of a pack, or picked one off a table at a show. It has been in a holder ever since, in a box, in a drawer. This is how it gets looked at — printed just over life size on archival paper, ready for a standard frame, somewhere it is passed every day.

With it come five pages. One we write: what the card is, what the set was, what the parallel means and what the grade means. The other three are left blank on purpose — the day it was given, a note from whoever gave it, and a page for the person it belongs to, to fill in whenever they are ready. There is no price anywhere in it and no market history, on purpose.

What arrives

  1. The print. 8 × 10, the card just over life size, borderless on Mohawk Superfine. It fits a stock frame from any shop that sells them.
  2. One written page. The card, the set, the parallel, the grade — what makes it the one people remember. Researched and written by us.
  3. Three blank pages. How it came to be theirs. A note from the person who gave it. And a last page addressed to them, for whenever they want it.

Most are bought as gifts. Some people buy one for the card that started their own collection, which is the same thing pointed inward.

The First Card — a 2020 Panini Flux Anthony Edwards rookie, PSA 10, printed for framing
Read a finished one before you order
A complete example, on a card from our own collection — a 2020 Panini Flux Anthony Edwards rookie in PSA 10, won at a first card show. The written page is the whole of what we add; the last three are blank because that half is not ours to write.
The First Card — five pages PDFThe print — 8 × 10, fits a stock frame PDF
The certificate number is blurred here because this is a public sample. On yours it is printed in full, so the card can be verified with PSA directly.

Or just the print

If the written page is not what you are after, the same print on its own is The Collector’s Story at $119 — clean or with three faint rules to write on, and the same sheet of prompts. The difference is the research: on a First Card we write the card up for you. Neither is the better object; they are for different occasions.

Order one
Six short answers here, then a secure Stripe page for payment and the address — that is the whole order, there is nothing to send afterwards and nothing to wait for.
  1. The card. Set, year, player and grade — or the certificate number on its own if it is graded. This is also what we research for the written page.
  2. The line beneath the name. Leave it to us — type you pick and we write one about the card itself, drawn from the same research that fills the written page. If you would rather have your own words, type them instead: six or seven, plain (“Dad’s first card”) or particular (“Everett’s first card show”). Or type none and the print stays clean, which is the one that looks like it came from a gallery.
  3. A link to a representative card, or your PSA certificate. Any listing for the same card and grade will do — it tells us which card you mean, and we source a clean image from there. A certificate number is better still. If you have a good photograph of your own, send that instead.

Please note that we print exactly as typed. Spelling, punctuation and capital letters are set the way you enter them, so do take a moment to read back what you have typed before you pay.

The print

Or order the simple way — the same checkout, without the print choice.

Secure checkout by Stripe. Postage is included, and we ship within the United States. Allow about two weeks. Full refund any time before we print it — returns and remakes.

Giving it? Ship it to them or to you — checkout asks for the address, and either way our note goes in the box with nothing that says what it cost. For Christmas, order by Sunday, December 6. After that, write to us first and we will tell you plainly what can still be met.