Beau Thompson never thought his baseball-card-collecting hobby would lead him to the mound at Wrigley Field.
Since December 2017, Thompson has been on a quest to collect 1 million Cubs cards. He finally hit that mark April 5, earning recognition from Topps and the Cubs for the achievement. Although Thompson always believed he would hit his goal, an unbelievable day at Wrigley capped a nearly 6½-year journey to the milestone for the lifelong Cubs fan.
“I grew up in a small town, a farm community, 35 people in my graduating class, and it’s just not something I ever thought could have happened,” Thompson, a Annawan, Ill., native, told the Tribune. “I knew at the very beginning that this is a big number to reach.”
The Cubs invited Thompson to throw out a ceremonial first pitch before their game against the Los Angeles Dodgers, part of a memorable day that included his name and accomplishment on Wrigley’s marquee and giving him a special jersey with “1 M” emblazoned on the back. Topps also created a custom 1 of 1 card of Thompson to commemorate the moment, presented to him on the field in a special black case.
“It’s just all been surreal,” Thompson said. “To have my own baseball card was literally a dream. Kids that collect baseball cards dream of something like this happening.”
Thompson, 41, still remembers discovering baseball cards in 1989 when his mom, who was into couponing, sent in UPC codes to Topps in exchange for a team set. He of course picked the Cubs, and when the cards arrived six-to-eight weeks later, Thompson flipped through them and saw his favorites from the 1989 team: Mark Grace, Ryne Sandberg and Andre Dawson.
And so began Thompson’s love of baseball cards, especially of the Cubs.
Thompson began buying card collections when he moved to Madison in 2014, accumulating more than 1 million cards predominantly from the junk wax era of the ’80s and ’90s. He always would set aside any Cubs and figured he could trade the cards from all the other MLB teams to other collectors in exchange for their unwanted Cubs cards. Thompson initially started with 70,000 Cubs cards that were already in his collection.
“I had a million cards, so let’s get a million cards,” Thompson said of the inspiration.
Thompson started his Twitter account (@onemillioncubs) and a blog to share his road to 1 million, and it blew up quickly, receiving trade requests from the get-go.
In the first year, Thompson estimated he acquired 125,000-150,000 Cubs cards, which had him projecting the process would take five years. He slowed down the last two years, though, wanting to be more selective with his additions as he got closer, envisioning it as a special event when he hit the mark. Thompson’s wife, Amy, has been supportive of his project and passion for the hobby, which has been his full-time job since October 2021.
“I had no idea what was to come, I didn’t think it was going to be that special,” Thompson said of his day at Wrigley. “So I kind of held back on certain trades and what I was buying so over the last year it was definitely like, OK, it can really happen at any time, but I want to control the last step in the process.”
Among the thousands of duplicates in his collection, Sandberg’s 1987 Topps card is the most common with more than 3,000. Thompson’s collection has been acquired from a variety of sources, mainly through trades with people on Twitter and Facebook and buying them on eBay or at card shops and card shows. And no, he did not track how much he spent on them over the years.
“That’s one of those things where it’s like, do I want to know?” Thompson said, laughing. “Essentially they are some type of investments because we can’t take anything with us so I don’t want them to decline in value, but I don’t follow the values of anything in my collection. I hope it goes up, but it’s not something that I track.”
One million Cubs cards — among the 3 million sports cards he owns — requires a lot of space. Thompson keeps most of them in boxes in a 600-square-foot storage room in his basement with roughly 13 industrialized storage racks. He keeps his best cards, including ones from the 19th century and some of his superfractors, on display in his office.
“One takeaway from it all is how many people root you on to reach your goals,” Thompson said. “It’s been really inspirational to see all of the good that’s come out of it: the friendships I’ve made, the relationships that I’ve built and how supportive Cubs fans have been, collectors have been in helping me reach my goal.”
Although he finally has his 1 million Cubs cards, the project isn’t quite finished. The cards are largely disorganized, so Thompson’s next step is sort through and tally how many he has of each Cubs player and by year or edition. While he plans to keep most of the collection, Thompson also wants to give away some of the Cubs cards to kids or other adults to introduce them to the hobby.
Hitting the milestone doesn’t mark the end of Thompson’s love of card collecting. He still has a few holy grails on his list, most notably the first Cubs card made in 1886 when they were the White Stockings, and still plans to buy Cubs cards with a focus on ones he doesn’t own.
“Now I can kind of relax and I don’t have to chase a number any more,” Thompson said. “I just really enjoy the collecting.”
