SHEBOYGAN — In the back of a silver Chevy Traverse sits one of the most unique collections in Wisconsin.
“So I’ve got about 18,000 of those all together.”
What started as a one-off challenge, transformed into a decades-long passion.
“There's 1,000 German. 1,000 French.”
The entire 138,000-card collection doesn't usually travel, but I asked Dan Barnard to bring them, so I could see it.
“Tempest, I have well over 12,000 of those.”
It's not an official Guinness Book of World Records record; however, it's the largest collection of anything I have done a story on. And I've done stories on the world record Winnie the Pooh and Smurf collections.
"I've got a test printing of which there is exactly two of them known to exist. I have one of them."
It seems like this collection would have a good chance of setting the record for the largest collection of one Magic: The Gathering card. Dan Barnard, better known as Stone Rain Dan in the Magic community, has collected 138,639 (and counting) copies of the Stone Rain card.
"It's fun collecting," he said with a laugh.
The Green Bay area collector has misprints, test prints, foils, altered art, autographed copies, and every single edition of the Stone Rain card. In fact, he even has copies in Russian, French, Mandarin, German, and more. He has thousands upon thousands of copies of the exact same card. A few cards cost about $5,000.
He knows it's kind of crazy.
"Oh yea, I agree. I'm not going to argue with that," he said.
But that doesn't matter. It's what he loves to do.
"I mean it's not a huge deal. I collect a card, but it's just a little notoriety."
The collection started in the 1990s. Barnard heard of a guy who had 130 copies of one card. That's when he decided to challenge himself and see how many of one card he could collect.
"And to see if I could affect the price, and I do believe I have affected the actual cost of the - I mean it used to be a nickel common. I mean now it’s more like about 25 or 50 cents which doesn’t seem like a whole lot but that means it's gone up like 5 to 10 times.”
Watch the story on Stone Rain Dan...
Stone Rain isn't a particularly rare or expensive card. Actually, that's what has allowed him to collect so many. He needed a common card that wasn't going to break the bank.
Now, decades later after collecting the first card, he has become a well-known figure in the Magic: The Gathering community.
“A lot of times there's so many places that will actually have them set aside for me just in the odd chance that I came in," he said.
A collection on this scale is something the owner of The Gameboard, a Sheboygan gaming shop has never seen before.
“People’s collections get huge, but not like a specific card. Dan’s focus is incredible, and the fact that he’s gotten all these different languages, and he’s brought such a passion to what he's done is amazing," Lynn Potyen the owner of The Gameboard said.
Stone Rain Dan estimates his collection is worth between $200,000 and $300,000. That is a lot of money without a doubt. However, that means the average value of each of his 130,000 cards is around $1 to $2. Although, Barnard does have plenty of rare cards ranging from $50 to $5,000.
While the collecting process can be daunting and tiring, Barnard said he gets re-energized every time he meets another fan of his.
“There's been times just like why am I doing this? Do I really want to do it? But then I talk to people and they’re like it’s so cool that you have that many of that card. And it’s just - wow that’s something. It’s like I’ll keep going.”
Eventually, though, his card-collecting days will conclude. He will give the nicest cards to his daughter, and he has a special plan for the rest.
“Either we’re going to do a huge bonfire and have me on like a Viking funeral kind of a thing being burned, you know, like that. Or we’re going to have all these extras made into like a big casket.”
But until that day, he’ll keep on collecting.
“Just kind of have fun with it," he said.
If you have Stone Rain cards you'd like to give to Barnard, you can contact him via his Facebook page.
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