A Massive Collection with Yaz at the Center
Dan Pina is quick to point out that his card collection is very diversified. He has everything from complete sets dating back over a century to top cards of legendary players like Nolan Ryan, Mickey Mantle, and Roberto Clemente. But it’s Pina’s ensemble of Boston Red Sox players — especially Carl Yastrzemski — that are the centerpiece of his magnificent collection.
Known as Dan the YazMan8 on X, formerly Twitter, Pina has 3,000-plus Yastrzemski cards. That includes 13 of his 1960 Topps rookie card, one of which is autographed.
“I have all his playing years stuff,” Pina said. “Topps NOW® does a lot of newer stuff with older players and their sets with Archives and Heritage, and I have a ton of that. I have about 75 Yaz autographs, mostly on cards.”
Growing up in Massachusetts in the 1980s, Pina got his first taste of Yastrzemski cards when he saw the 1987 Topps Turn Back the Clock. That card features the 1967 Topps card of Yastrzemski in his late 20s. That was the moment that started Pina’s collecting journey. He hasn’t stopped since.
“What turned me on to Yaz was really my grandparents,” said Pina, who will turn 49 in late April. “My grandparents were lifelong Red Sox fans — grew up watching Yaz from the very beginning. Being close to them, it just kind of rubbed off.”
Pina’s favorite Yastrzemski card of all time is that 1967 Topps, the year he won the rare Triple Crown award. Pina picked up his ’67 Topps card in 1989, and didn’t have it graded until recently. He was pleasantly surprised to receive an SGC 8 after all those years of having it raw.
Pina also loves his 1960 Topps Yastrzemski, which he owns in a PSA 8. There are just 45 examples graded higher by PSA. Rounding out Pina’s top three Yastrzemski cards is his 2023 Bowman Chrome Retrofractor Auto numbered to /50. It’s labeled as Yastrzemski’s 1st Bowman card. Keeping with modern day cards, Pina has completed 2022 and ’24 Topps Gilded rainbows of Yastrzemski.
Red Sox & Stars
Besides Yastrzemski, Pina collects a wide range of Red Sox players. He was especially big into Nomar Garciaparra in the 1990s.
“I have a lot of Red Sox autos of all my favorite players — Wade Boggs, Roger Clemens, Jim Rice, Carleton Fisk, Nomar, Pedro, Varitek, Dustin Pedroia, David Ortiz. I’ve got Tim Wakefield’s auto,” said Pina, who resides in upstate western New York. “I have all the major Red Sox players you can think of from the ’80s, ’90s, and into the 2000s.”
A pair of Ted Williams top Pina’s list of his favorite Red Sox cards. He owns a 1954 Topps Williams in a PSA 2.5 and a 1955 Topps Williams in an SGC 2.5. A couple of Pina’s other top cards include the 1992 Topps Traded of Garciaparra and Jason Varitek; he has both in PSA 10 slabs.
A few of Pina’s best non-Red Sox cards he’s collected include a 1953 Topps Mickey Mantle in a PSA 1, a Nolan Ryan rookie, a second-year Hank Aaron, and a second-year Roberto Clemente.
A Big Set Collector
While his Yastrzemski and Red Sox cards are the heart and soul of his collection, building sets is an important endeavor for Pina as well. He has every Topps set from 1970 to 2024.
“I have a lot of vintage,” he said. “I have a showcase dedicated to just vintage from all the cards from the ’50s to the ’70s. I have about 150 boxes from about 1986 to 1992 unopened, all on display. You walk into that section of my card room, it looks like you’re walking into like a 1980s, early 1990s card shop. That’s the whole idea.”
Pina’s favorite set of all time is 1987 Topps, hands down. It was the year Pina started collecting.
“Even if you take away the bias, I just love the set,” Pina said. “It’s the wood grain. It’s just so cool looking.” He has a beautiful display that plasters an entire wall in his card room of the entire 1987 Topps set in uncut sheets.
His second favorite set is 1972 Topps — a tough one to piece together due to the high series. It took Pina two years to complete it. “When I’m building my sets, condition matters, but I’m not looking for perfect,” Pina said. “Like the older early ’70s stuff, I want that in very good to excellent. I don’t want all my cards wrinkled and creased.”
Rounding out Pina’s top three sets is 2019 Topps Flagship. After a 10-year collecting hiatus, he jumped back in for 2019. That reintroduction to The Hobby was particularly memorable.
Pina keeps all his sets in binders — for protection, but also for easy access to look at them.
“I’m a believer in that I like to look through them and I like to enjoy them,” Pina said. “If they’re inside a box on a closet shelf, to me that’s not really enjoying them. If you take them out and look at them, you could ruin them, damage them. I like them in binders. I just think they show very well.”
