Welcome to Fractionaut Spotlight, where we feature collectors from our Discord community, ask them about their collecting experience and highlight their PCs. ICYMI, “Fractionauts” are what we call collectors on Dibbs, the members of our community.
Dibbs: The first collector we are spotlighting is our very own Discord mod, Drwho#8637, AKA Tim. Drwho, why don’t you introduce yourself to the Dibbsverse?
Drwho: For my day job, I am a Cyber Security Architect, managing security apps on over 75,000 PCs and servers and managing email security for over 800,000 emails a day (I work for a pretty large company). I can't say much more than that, as we aren't allowed to say more (not quite an "if I told you, I'd have to kill you" type of thing, but close).
As for hobbies, I'm a bit of a computer gamer and play World of Warcraft a bit. I also collect (and built) some of the larger Lego Technic sets (the big sets, 1000+ pieces), focused on the sports cars, like the Porsche, Lamborghini, Ferrari, and Bugatti sets.
I'm not very active on social media, to be honest. I have a Facebook account, but I rarely post anything. That's largely the cyber security architect side of me coming out, not saying or posting much that could allow people (malicious actors) to find me or target me 😀
Dibbs: How long have you been a Fractionaut?
Drwho: I started using Dibbs in the summer of 2021, so going on around 8-9 months now.
Dibbs: What is in your PC?
Drwho: I collect PSA 9 graded rookie cards of mostly Hall of Famers, mostly from the 1980's and 1990's (have 47 PSA 9 graded rookie cards of various players so far), as that's what I grew up collecting and watching on TV in whatever games I could watch. Some of those cards I had as a kid, but didn't save them. So collecting those same cards again, but graded PSA 9, is a bit of a nostalgia thing for me. I also think PSA 9 cards are largely undervalued, often being valued at only 10-15% of a PSA 10 card's value. I see some potential for PSA 9 graded cards to increase in value at some point in the future, especially rookie cards of Hall of Famers.
I'm also a big fan of Brendan Shanahan and collect some of his cards, with a major focus on the Printing Plate cards, the 1 of 1 cards. I currently have 52 printing plates for Shanahan cards. I like the concepts of those cards, each being 1/1 and used to print the actual cards. It's almost like owning a piece of sports card history.
Dibbs: What was your first card?
Drwho: I don't remember what my first card ever was, but my first meaningful card was a 1989 Donruss Ken Griffey Jr. rookie card. I think I had three of them if I recall correctly. Something about that card, I really liked it, and I liked Griffey as a player, too.
Dibbs: What is your most valuable card?
Drwho: I more recently started collecting PSA 9 graded cards, which in general would be my more valuable cards overall (Brendan Shanahan cards are mostly not huge value cards; I collect those because Shanahan is my favorite player). Of my PSA 9 cards, the most valuable is probably the 1996-97 Topps Kobe Bryant rookie.
Dibbs: What is your most sentimental card?
That would be my 1989 Upper Deck Ken Griffey Jr. rookie card, PSA 9 graded. That was a card I always wanted as a kid, but I couldn't afford it and never managed to get one. It was, and still is, such an iconic and recognizable card, and it really got my attention too. When I finally got a PSA 9 graded one, I had this sense of major happiness and satisfaction of finally getting it, having it in my collection. I could feel the kid in me jumping up and down with joy and excitement.
Dibbs: What is your grail card?
Drwho: I think of all the cards I've seen and would love to obtain someday, the one card, the grail card, would be a 1955 Topps Roberto Clemente rookie in a higher grade, like PSA 8 or PSA 9. My granddad was a big Pittsburgh Pirates fan and told me a lot about Clemente. He was a great ballplayer and an even better person in general. I never was able to collect any of his cards due to their higher values but had that deep down wish of getting his rookie card someday. It was something that would remind me of my granddad a lot, the times we shared talking about baseball, the Pirates, and Clemente.