Wiped out

I've been sick since last Wednesday.  Whatever this is that's going around, don't catch it.   It wiped me out so bad that I probably slept 60 hours between Wednesday and Sunday. 

How bad was this bug?  I missed the monthly card show.   Now you know how bad it was....

I made two feeble attempts to write blog posts, but in the end the blog suffered as well. Hopefully today is the day that I can start catching up on posting and thanking people for sending me some great stuff.

I spent part of the Black Friday weekend surfing COMC.com, wanting to take advantage of the free shipping that they offered.   Hey, 3 bucks is 3 bucks, right!

Well, a little inspiration hit me when I looked at a quintet of relic cards that was graciously sent to me by Matt from the Bob Walk the Plank blog.   My Jim Thome collection has kind of dropped to the back of the line recently (so much so that I forgot to put the page back up on the blog, but that's another story) but these 5 cards kind of woke me up.   They probably doubled the number of Thome relics that I own.

I have always like the A&G framed relics, and the 2008 jersey that was in the envelope is no exception.   Love the border design.

I love the Hitting Machine relic cards from 2007 Fleer Ultra (I already have the Troy Glaus card for my Blue Jays collection), and the Thome card is no exception.  I don't have a whole lot of Topps Pristine, but they are beautiful and very shiny cards.  The Thome Fantasy Favorites card here is another nice add to the collection.

I can't honestly say whether I own an Ultimate Collection card from Upper Deck.  Well, OK now I can.  I like the fact that the background matches the photo which matches the jersey swatch.   Uniformity is cool.  The dual bat relic on the right got me thinking; I can't remember any time ever hearing about Jim Thome and steroids.  Not once.  Makes him all the better in my eyes.

Now these 5 cards put Jim Thome in my head while I was surfing COMC, and I found these two beauties.

I have wanted these two cards since I first saw them on the Night Owl blog roughly a year ago.  I couldn't find the exact post on his blog, but I do remember that he was quite emphatic about not giving up his copy.

I can't say that I blame him. 

Now I don't have the black bordered parallel, or the A&G back, or the Bazooka back, or any of the other versions of this great card.   But suffice to say that I'd be quite happy if I just owned these two cards.  At least chasing the A&G parallels would be more realistic than going after the Moments & Milestones parallels from that same year.  (that's a rant for another time)

Matt, thank you for the instant Thome relic collection!!  They really are appreciated.

thanks for reading, Robert