Collector Profile: Corey Stackhouse and the world’s largest Tim Wallach collection 

February 29, 2024

By Kevin Glew 

Cooperstowners in Canada 

To say Corey Stackhouse is a passionate Tim Wallach card collector would be an understatement. 

The longtime Montreal Expos fan, who is a lawyer in Farmington, N.M., is attempting to collect every Wallach card. 

That’s right.  

Not just one of each card, but every Wallach card ever produced. 

“Usually the reaction is just, ‘Why?’” Stackhouse shared about what people say when they learn of his quest. “I mean casual fans don’t really know who he is at this point . . . But for the most part, people have been very supportive, but there are a few that think it’s ridiculous – which it is.” 

It’s a mission made even more daunting when you consider that the majority of Wallach’s cards were produced in the ’80s and ’90s when the printing presses of card companies never seemed to stop. 

Stackhouse estimates that around 15 million Wallach cards, in total, have been produced. And so far, he has managed to collect more than 33,000 of them. That count includes close to 1,300 copies of Wallach’s 1982 Topps rookie card. 

“I have five or six cards where I have over 1,000 copies of each,” said Stackhouse. 

So why is he doing this?   

Why does he have such a devotion to the longtime Expos third baseman’s cards? 

Well, it started when he was four years old when he opened a pack of 1983 Topps baseball cards that his father bought him when they lived in the Phoenix area. 

“We were going through them – and at that age I was still pretty young, so I didn’t comprehend necessarily the stats or anything, so it was more of an aesthetic interest,” explained Stackhouse. “I think I liked the Expos uniforms the best and it was pointed out to me that Tim Wallach had the same first name as my younger brother.” 

After Stackhouse pulled the Wallach card from the pack, he handed it to his father and asked if Wallach was a good player.  

“My father said yes, so, I just declared him my favourite player,” said Stackhouse. 

From that point on, he started accumulating Wallach cards. A few years later, he began buying cards with his friends. 

“Most kids on the street either liked Don Mattingly or Wade Boggs or Mark McGwire, so I’d go to the card shops and the Mattingly cards would be expensive – his rookie cards were particularly expensive,” recalled Stackhouse. “So, if we each had two or three bucks, my friends might be able to buy one card of a player they liked. I was able to buy 10 or 15 [Wallach] cards for a few bucks.” 

Stackhouse took a break from collecting when he was in high school and while completing his undergraduate degree, but he started up again to relieve stress while he was studying for the bar exam. 

Stackhouse owns at least one copy of every card from Wallach’s playing years. Most would be content with that achievement, but Stackhouse is not ready to quit, he wants every Wallach card ever printed. 

“It’s a way to keep doing it,” said Stackhouse about his lofty collecting goal. “Wallach’s last card [from his playing career] was printed in 1997 and occasionally Topps or another company will produce some set of former players [that includes a Wallach card], but if I was just collecting one of each card, I wouldn’t have anything left to collect.” 

These days, Stackhouse adds to his collection by scouring eBay and other sites for lots of Wallach cards. He created a blog in 2011 that documents his collection. 

On a whim, several years ago, he wrote a message on his blog inviting collectors to send him their Wallach cards and he provided a mailing address. To his surprise, packages started arriving from all over North America. He has had people send cards from 47 states and several Canadian provinces. 

“I get a lot of really nice notes from people that aren’t active collectors,” said Stackhouse. “It’s still sort of a surprise and a little unreal even today that I get cards in the mail, but it’s been fun and people have been incredibly generous.” 

Stories about his collection have also appeared on MLB.com, SI.com and in the Los Angeles Times. This has helped spread the word. 

“The Los Angeles Times reporter came out and did an article on it and it got picked up by a lot of outlets, so it [his Wallach collection] had a little moment probably eight years ago or 10 years ago now,” said Stackhouse. “Since then, the number of cards coming in has slowed down, but it’s never really stopped. It’s been a pretty steady flow. I still get cards in the mail every week or two.” 

When he receives the cards, he acknowledges the sender on his blog.   

And yes, Wallach, is aware of the collection. Stackhouse has had two interactions with the former Expos third baseman. He met Wallach at a spring training game in Arizona in 2010. Stackhouse wore his Expos jersey to the game and Wallach, who was a coach with the Los Angeles Dodgers at the time, spotted him.  

“At this particular park in Phoenix, the visiting team came in from centre field, he spotted me when he was at about second base, walking towards the dugout. He pointed right at me and said, ‘I’ll be right over.’ And he disappeared into the dugout and then came over,” said Stackhouse. “He was very nice. He signed my jersey.” 

Stackhouse didn’t tell Wallach about his collection, but later an Esquire reporter set up a call between the two for a potential article where Stackhouse got to ask Wallach questions for an hour. He also told Wallach about his collection.

“He was incredibly generous with his time and very patient in answering all of my silly questions,” said Stackhouse.  

At the end of that call, Wallach gave Stackhouse his phone number and offered to provide him with game tickets if he ever needed them. 

“I took him up on that once a few months after that,” said Stackhouse. “I went to a Rockies/Dodgers game and sure enough, he had tickets waiting for me at the ticket booth.” 

Of the hundreds of cards in his collection, Stackhouse still ranks the 1983 Topps card – the one he pulled from a pack when he was four – as his favourite.  

“It’s not just for sentimental reasons,” said Stackhouse. “The 1983 Topps is one of my all-time favourite designs.” 

Stackhouse also has a soft spot for Wallach’s 1985 Topps and 1991 Upper Deck cards. 

Surprisingly, you won’t find a shrine to Wallach in Stackhouse’s home.  

“I have a little closet area where most of cards are kept in these card storage boxes that are about the size of a shoebox,” said Stackhouse. “I keep them in sleeves that hold 25 cards. They’re called team bags, so 25 of the same card will go in one of those and then they go in the shoeboxes. I do have a three-ring binder with one of each card if someone wanted to look through it.” 

Over the years, his collection has expanded to include more than just cards. He has a game-worn Wallach helmet and one of Wallach’s bats. He also owns a bobblehead, posters and cards of Wallach’s sons – Chad, Matt and Brett – all of whom have played professional baseball. 

Stackhouse says his wife, Ashley, and his kids are on board with his collection. 

“Everyone in my family is supportive. I’m the only card collector so I don’t think it’s much different than any other hobby that people may have like painting or fishing or whatever,” he said. “It’s not something that dominates our home or all our free time.” 

One of his challenges in recent years has become card companies releasing limited edition, low serial-numbered Wallach cards. 

“The cards that I don’t have now are limited run parallels and printing plates and things of that nature where there might only be one,” said Stackhouse. “And I don’t really lose a lot of sleep over that. In my mind, I’m an old-fashioned collector . . . I don’t need the six different coloured parallels and that sort of thing . . . I’m not going to feel my collection is incomplete if I don’t have what I would call a gimmicky insert with a production run of one or two.” 

***

If you’d like to send Stackhouse some Wallach cards, visit his blog here. His mailing address can be found on the far-right side near the top of his home page.