THE TELLIN' AND THE GETTIN'

It's funny (not really in a haha sort of way though), if I'm ever somewhere, and a real-life human person asks me what I collect, 99 times out of 100, I end up thinking how rude it is of them to be asking me such a question, before hitting them with a nonchalant "Whatever catches my eye" or "A little bit of everything" a few microseconds later. Conversely though, if some seemingly disembodied computer person asks me that very same question, I think "Huh, that sure is nice of this person to ask me about such a thing", then answer their question by rattling off a list (usually a long list) of things.

Of course most longtime card collectors will realize that there's a big difference between the two scenarios, as more often than not if someone in the flesh asks you what you collect, it's probably because you're in a setting where cards are being sold, and the person asking is most likely someone who's got wares to move, and are only asking so that they can try to con you into buying some overpriced item(s); while if someone online asks you, the odds are good that they're doing so because they'd like to send you something, or at the very least, are interested in proposing a trade -- both of which being considerably more agreeable than having to endure a sales pitch from some guy who's wearing a t-shirt that's two sizes too small.

Lest anyone think I'm being facetious for the sake of a blog post, I have a pair of semi-recent examples to illustrate my point, which I will however reverse the order of... for the sake of this blog post.

Last month I found myself needing some penny sleeves (yeah, I don't know how it happened either!), so off to the card/copy/print shop down in town I went, and boy did I pick a terrible day to go. The guy who runs the place (he's not the owner though), is also the one who has the little card nook set up, and since they're his cards, he's the only one who handles card related things, so if he's busy, or away, you're kind of SOL. Anyways, I won't go into the whole thing, but the short version of the story is that I, and another fellow, couldn't pay for our purchases right away, because the card guy was dealing with a husband and wife who were putting in some sort of large printing order, and of course just had to have a million questions that all needed long drawn out explanations.

So, me and this fellow were waiting, and waiting, and waiting some more. After about ten minutes, he asked me what I collected, and without skipping a beat I replied, "A little bit of everything". Now before you go and think that I was being a dick, especially since he wasn't going to be attempting to sell me something, there's three things that you should know (hmm, maybe this isn't the short version of the story after all): A). It was hotter than hell that day, inside and outside, I don't know why it was so hot in the shop, but it was, and I felt like I was trying to get the heat stroke. B). I was getting more than just a little pissed off about having to wait so long, especially every time that it seemed like things were just about to wrap up, then that GD woman would ask another question, which meant even more waiting, and even more rage (at least on my part).  And C). The guy who asked me what I collected, didn't give two sh*ts what I collected, his body language made it clear that this was just an idle question (kind of like when a cashier asks how your day's going), so why bother giving any sort of sincere answer?

Even though it isn't relevant to this post, I'll finish the story by saying that at about the fifteen minute mark, the guy who was waiting with me, put down his packages of toploaders, and just walked out. I on the other hand, waited a little longer, only to see the card guy, and this couple, walk to a different part of the store, and start talking about something else. At was at this point that, through gritted teeth, asked some other employee who had just walked out from the back, if he could just handle my paying for ten packages of sleeves, and thankfully with a little help from a grateful me, he was able to do so. Never have I had to endure so much, just to get so little, at least not as far as card stuffs go.

Hopefully there's still some folks reading, cause I still got the other half of the comparison to get to, which occurred some months ago, when Trevor, from THE RIPPIN' AND THE TRADIN', asked me via a Twitter DM, if I was collecting anyone new?

Now other then a few DM's, and one previous exchange of cards, I haven't had a lot of contact with Trevor, and yet when he asked me if I was collecting anybody new, my first thought was that it was gosh awful nice of him to ask (especially since it's not something that I ever get asked), which was then followed by my sending him a small list of names. So why was I willing to give a somewhat in-depth answer to an internet person that I don't know all that well, and not some guy standing right next to me in a sweltering card shop? Well, that's easy, I knew that Trevor wasn't going to try and sell me something, and more importantly, unlike the guy in line, I knew that Trevor was asking because he actually cared to hear my reply.

In case you haven't noticed yet, Trevor sent along quite the assortment, which came about from my sending him a bunch of needs for his 1991 Upper Deck football set. Oh, and while I'm thinking about it, if you have any unwanted cards from that set just laying around, Trevor's the dude that you need to contact, well, at least if you have any of his needs that is (there's a list up on his blog).

I guess I should probably talk about some of these cards at some point, pretty much all of which have been death dealers up to this point, well, save for Jamie Moyer that is :)

I noticed recently that a number of the modern football players (they're modern to me) that I'm now collecting made a name for themselves with either the Broncos or the 49ers, which is a bit perplexing as I wasn't a fan of either team growing up. I guess those teams just produced a lot of guys that I find interesting, and fun to collect, now that I'm older.

I've kind of been collecting Steve Young for awhile now, but apparently hadn't noticed it until I started pulling apart all of my former set builds. He's one of the big names that I always seemed to go out of my way to pick up early in the builds, so now that those builds have all been abandoned, I've got myself a respectable little Steve Young collection going on.

Many thanks to Trevor for these cards, he really didn't need to send anything in return for what I sent, but he did anyways, and I'd be lying if I said that I wasn't glad that he did!

But wait, there's more! Just a few weeks after I got this package, an unexpected PWE showed up, a PWE from Trevor no less, yeah, the same Trevor...

How's that for trio! All three of these guys could make a body turn cold! A couple o quick notes: 1). The latter two cards are the first two cards that I've ever owned from the Pro Set Power set. 2). Ronnie Lott isn't a guy that you want to interrupt during his morning constitutional :) And 3). But seriously though, that Ronnie Lott card is pretty interesting, if only because you can see the pinky on his left hand, you know, the one that was broken and was going to require a lengthy amount of time to heal, so to avoid missing any games, he had partially amputated instead. I dare you to try and find a current player who'd be willing to do that, go ahead, I'll wait.

Such a great PWE! A couple of these newer player collections really got a shot in the arm thanks to Trevor, and it was very much appreciated.


Thanks for taking a moment to look at my page.