Changes (and other things)

I've never done a year in review post before. Nor have I ever done any sort of a goals, collecting or otherwise, post. I don't set personal goals, so the latter would be especially difficult to pull off. That being said, I do have some plans for this new year, and since some of them are blog related, I thought I might do a bit of a year in preview if you will (followed by some odds and ends - this going to be a long one).

I don't really know where to start, or in what order to do this in, so my apologies in advance if any of this feels disjointed.

I've talked about wanting to make changes to the blog title, the blog's content, and other things, off and on for what feels like years now. Some small ones have been made over the years, but never anything too drastic. I'd like to change that!

As card collecting continues to lose it's luster with me, I find my attention often turning elsewhere. Last year that meant returning to a past favorite of mine, reading. Prior to 2020, I hadn't read more than 10 books in a year in at least a decade, while 2020 saw me finishing... well, unfortunately I didn't keep track, but it had to have been at least 35-40 books, as most nights were spent reading. With that in mind, I'd really like to do more book related posts on here, and not just more "here's some books that I got" posts. I'm talking reviews, or at least what passes for a review in my mind, which could be interesting, especially since I haven't done a book review since grade school.

I can't recall if I've already talked about it on here or not, but a few months ago I finally unpacked all of my toy (or action figure if you prefer) boxes. Most of these boxes have been sealed up since my move to TN, which was almost six years ago now. Since I had to leave my good display case behind (it would've never survived the trip), I didn't have anywhere to display this stuff, so the boxes sat mostly undisturbed for all that time. In recent years though, I've acquired three display cases, two are up, and other, which needs some repairs, should be up and running by spring. With some places to display things now, I figured it was time to finally break into the boxes. Having just finished sorting my card collection, and weeding out quite a few unwanted things, I figured that I'd probably be able to do the same thing with my toys, and I was right!

I ended up with a couple of boxes worth of toys that I no longer needed. This process turned out to be much easier than I thought it would, it basically just boiled down to taking something out of a box, figuring out if this something that I hadn't seen in six years still stirred up any emotions, and if didn't, it went to the get rid of pile. As it turned out, a lot of stuff wasn't doing much for me anymore, a couple boxes worth of stuff even. There was however quite a few things that did still do something for me, things with stories attached to them that I'd like to blog about.

Stamps are another thing that I've "threatened" to start posting about more for years now. I'd like this to be the year that I start doing so. I took up stamp collecting in/or around 2008, and it indirectly led me back to card collecting a few years later, so for me they kind of go hand-in-hand now. And like with the cards, I went a little overboard with stamps, and now have quite a few that I no longer want. My stamp collecting has dropped off a bit over the last few years, but I'm planning on going through that collection this year and weeding out the unwanted stuff. The stamps have been calling my name, and I'm hoping that by honing the collection some, I'll be able to focus more on the things (i.e. countries) that I do still care to collect. Who knows, this process may even lead to the first all-stamp Free Stuff Friday? Will that be the least popular edition of Free Stuff Friday ever? I'm thinking so!

I have a few ideas for some new series' as well, although one of them has been rattling around for a while now, that being "From the Vault" (I'm not completely sold on the name yet), which would feature some of my favorite possessions (everything from cards to artwork). My mom recently came across a number of mostly forgotten family photos, which have all been really fantastic to see, especially since I had never seen a lot of them before. These photos have made me want to do my version of a throwback Thursday, although I came with a name for "something" Tuesday while laying in bed one night, and figured that there was no way that I would forget it by the next morning, and you know what? I forgot what it was by the next morning! "Partial Memories" is another series that I've been toying with, which would be just as it sounds, partial memories (I have a lot of those, about a lot of things) of an event, place, etc. If I do start doing any of these, it'll only be on a once per month basis, as some of them may require a little more time than usual to gather the accompanying items/photos, and to compose.

Seeing the recent changes (at least on the desktop version) that, Matt, has made to his primary blog, have made me really want to make some aesthetic changes of my own around here. Not being computer-minded will likely hinder this want though. I'm not going to tell you how long it took me to do what I currently have, but it was a lot longer than it should have. With the changes to content coming, I'm also going to be putting some effort into changing the title. I that a few people like it, but I've grown quite tired of it, I just can't seem to come up with anything else that I like. It would make things considerably easier if I could just start another blog, and move all of the non-card content over there. But I can't maintain two blogs, and even if I could, I'd probably just start posting on the other one and let this one fall by the wayside.

I guess too before I move onto something else, I should note that I'm not sure how soon these changes will come into play, as I have a number of commitments to attend to in the coming months, and am not sure how quickly I'll be able to do the things on here that I want to. Also, even though I've kind of already been doing it more the last month or so, my posting schedule from now on will likely be capped at two posts per week, and if all goes well, that number will probably drop to one per week by year's end. I'm not expecting most of these content changes to be very popular, so to counterbalance that, I'm going to make sure that at least one of my two posts per week will remain card related, or at least sports related.

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A rare-ish Reggie Roby popped up on Sportlots a few weeks ago, and I just so happened to be in the right place at the right time to get it. And when I say rare, I mean that I hadn't ever seen it come up for sale anywhere. Thankfully it's scarceness wasn't reflected in the price, as it only set me back a quarter + a buck for shipping. I was so nervous about wasting any time to purchase it, that I didn't even bother to look through the seller's other items. And speaking of the seller, a big thanks go out to jetcards, not only for listing it, but also for knowing how to properly ship a card, which is highly unusual for a seller on Sportlots.

Other than the fact that this is Reggie's only post career/tribute card, I know next to nothing about the 2005 DHL Miami Dolphins set. I have to assume that it's a regional issue, but beyond that... no clues! But honestly, I don't really care either, I got the one card from it that I wanted, and that's all that matters.

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In other life news, a falling piece of broken cement board siding tried to dash my brains out earlier this week. The corner of it did successfully open up the back of my head as I was leaning down to pick something up, and didn't have time to move. The only time that I ever wear hat is when I'm outside working, and that thin piece of fabric was probably the difference maker as far as me not needing stitches goes. It did bleed, but I was able to stop it by myself. I think I might've gotten a slight concussion too, as every time I stopped moving for the next day and a half, my surroundings did not. Inanimate objects moving around in your peripheral vision isn't as fun as it sounds, it's certainly no Disney movie, let me tell you! Other than the bump, and healing wound, everything seems to be back to normal now (or at least that's what the voices in my head tell me 😝).

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I've been spending more time on the TCDB lately, and am finally learning how to use most of the features. I got really bored entering my collection, or at least the parts of it that I was planning on entering, so I decided to switch to adding trade bait instead. This has been considerably more enjoyable, and I even have three deals in the works already, plus an announced RAK headed my way. I'm thinking that I should've figured out how to use the site much sooner. And I don't know why anybody reading this would want to, but if you ever wanted to look me up there, you can do so here. 

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Did anyone have time off around Christmas? I did, and spent part of it painting the hallway. The trim around the doors still needs to be done, and possibly the doors themselves, but the hard part is done. I took a dozen photos trying to get one the color (pumpkin butter) to show properly, and wouldn't you know it, the one that came closest was in the one photo that I didn't mean to take? Oh well, what are you gonna do. 

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I've been seeing a lot of predictions for the new year, especially those of the card variety, in recent days, and thought that I'd add my one and a half cents. Contrary to many peoples hopes/predictions, I don't see this boom ending any time soon, and I'm talking years. Too many people have already "invested" too much money to let it falter that quickly. Like with most sucky things, it's gonna get a lot worse before it starts to get better.

I do see one positive outcome from all of this though, and that's with card shows, I think post-Rona, card shows are going to see a boom like they haven't since the 90's. After all, they're just another way to make money off of cards, easy money, at least for the promoters, so you have to know that folks are gonna try to capitalize on it. I obviously can't say how good all of these new shows will be, but if they start popping back up in areas that haven't seen any for decades, I would think that pretty much any show is better than no shows.

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And finally, I'm sure many of you have already heard, but China's gift to the world got another one this week, a good one!

Rest easy, Mary Ann.

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Thanks for taking a moment to skim through the page.

How I spent my eBay bucks

I was the recipient of some very generous packages during December, most of which still haven't been shown here on the blog, before I start getting to those though, I thought it might be a good idea to catch up on something from October, namely how I spent my eBay bucks certificate.

I'm not one to keep track of how much eBay bucks that I've accrued over any particular period, so it's always a surprise to see how much, or how little, I've earned during one of the three-month stretches that you get to stockpile as much as you can. This past October I was very surprised to see how much I had earned, especially since it was by far the most I had ever earned.

I guess before I get too far along here, I should point that lest anyone think that I'm bragging here, I'm not, as this large sum of bucks wasn't earned from copious amounts of buying, no, they were gotten thanks to copious amounts of selling -- which is something that's been necessary for me to do since March in order to supplement my monthly hobby budget.

In the three months leading up to October, it seemed like eBay was offering up incentives to sell on an almost weekly basis, most of which were of the "Get 10% back in eBay bucks if your item sells in the next 10-14 days" variety. Because of their frequency, I didn't end up listing a single item during that three-month stretch that didn't qualify for one of those offers, including the most expensive card that I owned, so thanks this to strategy, I earned quite a few bucks.

As many of you know though, there is one downside to acquiring so much eBay bucks, and that is that you only have a month to use them. For me this has always been difficult, even when I only have like a $1 to spend, primarily because of everybody else spending their respective bucks like a drunken sailor. I know I should be treating it as found money, but I can't, I spend it just like I would if it was coming out of my pocket, so because of that mindset, I am unable to overpay for anything just so I can use it... which seems to be much against the norm.

I was able to use it at all, of course, about half of it ended up being spent on birthday/Christmas presents, but I did manage to find a few things for myself too:

Full disclosure -- and you might want to sit down for this -- I have never been a fan of Gilligan's Island! Shocking, I know, but the show just never appealed to me, and this even after me trying to get into it multiple times across multiple decades. Dawn Wells is of course best known for her portrayal as Mary Ann on the show, although personally, when ever I hear her name, I always think of The Town That Dreaded Sundown.

But no matter what you associate her name with, she is a name, a very recognizable name, therefor her autograph tends to sell for a bit. I have bid on, and made offers on, multiple copies of this card over the last couple of years, always coming up short... until now! I made somewhat of a low offer on this one, the seller countered, I countered back, and the seller accepted. After trying, and failing, so many times to get this card, I can't tell you how much of a relief it was to finally be able to cross it off the checklist.

I would like to think that I was fairly familiar with Mr. Barney's football career prior to getting this card, or at least as familiar as one can be with an athlete's career that ended before you were born, that being said, I was completely unaware of his second career in music -- which apparently has been successful enough, that among other things, he (and former teammate Mel Farr) provided the backup vocals for Marvin Gaye's "What's Going On".

No offense to Mr. Yeager, or to any of my readers who happen to be Dodgers fans, but for me this not one of the more exciting autographs from the Golden Age sets. He played during what is probably my least favorite era of baseball (not counting the current era) and I'm not a Dodgers fan (not a hater either), but I needed it for my set, and it was cheap, so...

I will say though that I do like the image that was used for this card, it really emphasizes the added pharaoh's beard, a safety feature that Mr. Yeager himself was responsible for.

Even though I've lost a lot of interest in set collecting over the last couple of months, I still wanted to try and complete the 1999-00 HoloGrFX AuSOME parallel set, and not just the base parallel set, but the insert version too. It has been one of my favorite parallel sets since it came out, but even with that being said, I've recently started to question whether or not I even want to bother to complete it. I guess even if I do give up on it, I'll still have a few really cool cards from the set, including this Tim Duncan parallel from the 24/7 insert set.

I haven't really ever discussed it here, but Shawn Kemp's 1990-91 Fleer rookie, has been my favorite card for just about as long as I can remember. If anyone's curious as to why it is, well, it's a very uninteresting story, so I'm not going to bore anyone with it (at least not today). For the longest time I was content to just own a couple of copies, now I want 'em all! Since deciding this, I've acquired two such lots, which has gotten me to nearly 100 copies owned, it sounds like an impressive amount, except when you take into account the fact that there were probably over a million copies, literally, of this card produced... if only I had started hoarding them back in the 90's.

As mentioned at the top of the post, I've got a bunch of a packages to catch up on, as well as a piece about some cards that I've been quietly collecting since last March. I also have a new COMC series that I'm hoping to get up and running in the next two weeks, and there's still all the stuff to get to that I got at the card show in November. I don't know if any of these upcoming things sound interesting or not, but I thought it would be good to let everyone know what to expect over the next month or two -- sounds like a lot of card stuff though, so I'll have find a way to work in some non-card items, otherwise I'm going to end up getting burned out awfully quick!

Thanks for taking a moment to look at my page.