The Show Must Go On

Since the beginning of October, I've written 4 posts on this blog.  Yes, I've kept up with my other 3 line player collection blog, but it's just not the same.

I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that something happened at work; I've wanted to write about it on the blog since then, but haven't found the way, or the words to create the inspiration to write.

Then Queen's "The Show Must Go On" came on my iTunes this morning, and inspiration came to light.

I work in an office setting, and for any of you out there that work in the same kind of environment, you know that gossip usually is a big thing.

We had speculated ever since Hurricane Irma that our boss just wasn't the same.  Thoughts were that he might be taking another position in the company, or moving on to other employment.

The boss was away for a week in meetings at the end of September, and was expected back to work on the Monday after.

He never showed up.  His boss tried to locate him, but to no avail.  Our security department was called in.

Our boss was found dead.   Suicide.

There's 9 of us in our department, and not one of us had any idea he had these kind of thoughts.  Had I any idea, I surely would have reached out to talk to him.

He was 40.  Well established in the company and well thought of.  I wasn't close to him, but I liked the guy.  We had a good rapport.  I never believed for one moment that he would have been capable of this.

When it comes down to mental health, you just really never know. 

One card rule:  


2003-04 Topps - Own the Game #OTG19 - Wade Belak

I remember hearing about Wade Belak's suicide a few years ago.  (note: Belak's family believes his death was accidental, but the police ruled it suicide)

It surprised me to say the least, but it wasn't personal.   What happened with my boss was really personal, and gave me perspective on myself, as well as the others in my office.

This has taught that you truly never know what's going on in a person's mind.  But you can be there for them.

Sometimes listening is all you have to do.  Bell Canada's slogan during mental health awareness month rings more true to me now than ever.

#letstalk

Thanks for listening, Robert

Speaking of card shows

Twenty bucks.  That's all I spent on Saturday. 

One table.  That's all I looked at on Saturday.

I quickly walked through the room at the monthly card show, and went to the one vendor on the stage.  That area usually has the biggest selection of cards in varying prices.

This month it was a different vendor, and he had what the normal vendor doesn't usually have.

Dime boxes.  Now I get the allure.  I found some great stuff in the boxes...

70+ cards towards my 2017 Heritage set.  Including 4 SPs!  Nearly 1/2 the set is complete now.  Still have over 80 SP's to go however...that's a little depressing.

4 cards for the goalie frankenset.

Some miscellaneous hockey and baseball dotted the 107 cards I pulled out of the boxes.

One of his other tables was several $1 boxes.  Discounted 12 for $10.  I didn't do too bad here either.

Knocked one card off the serial #'d hockey set.  Dallas now has 8 cards in the set thanks to this 2007-08 SP Authentic card of Chris Conner.  Didn't remember the name, still don't even after looking at his career stats.  Chris bounced around the NHL over 9 seasons playing 180 games for 5 teams.

A couple of big names from the '82 set are crossed off the list.

A trio of serial #'d cards, including a couple of Blue Jays.  I've thought about starting a small Ichiro collection, and this serial #'d card for less than a buck might just be the start.

One true vintage card, J.C. Martin from the '62 Topps set.  Haven't bought any cards from that set for quite a while, and this card has the Rookie Trophy on it for under a buck.  Just 11 more cards to hit 200 in hand for the '62 set.

A couple of hall of fame short stops from the early 80's were easy pickups as well.

A couple of my newer set projects both get a Nolan Ryan scratched off the want list. 

The 12th card I won't show as I'm going to send it off to a fellow trade partner. 

After this bounty for just $20, I feel a little excited and a little empty.  I did spend close to 2 hours at the show, but only at one table.   I'm used to hitting a few tables at each show, and even though I did well for myself, I felt a little cheated afterwards.

My time was limited though, as I promised friends that I would help them on Saturday.  I'm thinking about hitting the smaller West Palm Beach show this Sunday now; maybe I'll get lucky and find another dime box to pad my collection further.

thanks for reading, Robert

I can't be relying on card shows

For the longest time, I've built a good portion of my vintage collection at card shows.  Sometimes you pay more, sometimes you pay less, but the major advantage of buying at shows is that you have the card in hand.  You can look at it, judge for yourself how good the quality of the card is.

Things have changed a bit now that I'm in the deep south.   Shows aren't as prevalent down here, as I've only found 2 shows that run once a month down here.  I could drive to N. Florida if I wanted to hit some more shows, but that's about a 4 hour drive.  Not something I prefer to do.

Well, I decided to change my purchasing habits a little bit with my last COMC order.  I plucked out a trio of '59 Topps cards, a set that kind of fell by the wayside the past few months.

These 3 cards combined cost $2.66, a little under a dollar a card.  I've been paying $1-$2 for commons at the show, so I'm saving a bit of money here.  Yes, I may be taking a bit of a chance on quality, but the scans have been good on COMC so I'm confident that I can start putting a dent in my vintage want lists in this manner as well.

These 3 cards also brought my total cards in hand for the '59 Topps set to an even 60%.  Still a lot of big name, big money cards to go, but hopefully I can start pecking away at this set again.

Maybe the card show this weekend will help...

Thanks for reading, Robert

The brothers Staal and some other numbers

It's been a bit since I've posted, something really disturbing happened at work last week and I haven't wanted to take the time to sit down and write a longer post about it.  I still really haven't decided whether I want to write about it yet...

So I stayed away for a few days until I got my COMC order in and decided to split it up into a couple of posts. 

The order came in today, and I kind of surprised myself with the amount of serial numbered cards that I had ordered for my Hockey SNI set.

I was actually able to group the cards together to discuss.  These two SP essentials cards from the 2010-11 SP Authentic set feature a couple of long time veterans of the NHL.  Mike Cammalleri returned to LA, where he started his career back in 2002.  Dan Boyle retired before the 2016/17 season after spending 18 years in the NHL and playing in over 1000 games. 

More veterans are in this trio of 2011-12 Panini Contenders, including the big off season free agent signing in Toronto, Patrick Marleau.  It's hard to believe that Patrick has already been in the league for 20 years, and if he stays healthy and plays every game over his 3 year contract in Toronto, he'll be in the top 5 all time in games played. 

I remember being disappointed when the Leafs bought out Mikhail Grabovski's contract a few years back.  He hasn't played a full season in the NHL since, and he's now one of those players who teams use to circumvent the salary cap. 

I like the trophy contenders cards from the 2012-13 Panini Contenders set.  None of the three players pictured have won the trophy that appears on their card.

Shiny always works.  Both of these cards came on the cheap, so I was glad to add some shiny to the envelope.  As you can see from the first few scans, I concentrated on teams that I didn't have a lot of cards for, such as Anaheim, Winnipeg and Montreal.  I still have a long way to go for the set, as I only have 270 out of the 1200 cards so far; however I'm trying to keep the teams relatively even as I go along.

This was a happy accident, purchasing 3 of the 4 Staal brothers.  Eric and Jordan are well known to many hockey followers, but I had totally forgotten about brother Jared, who only has 2 career NHL games to his credit.  Jared is currently playing in the Elite Ice Hockey League in the UK, for the Edinburgh Capitals. 

It's always funny how things work out.  Jordan moving from talent rich Pittsburgh to Carolina to play with his big brother Eric, only to have Eric leave the team a few years later in a trade to New York, and now to Minnesota on a free agent deal.  Eric seems to have found his scoring touch again in the mid-west, with 65 pts. last season, and 2 points in 2 games so far this year.

Jordan, who won one Stanley Cup in Pittsburgh, has now spent a half dozen seasons in Carolina, and was named co-captain of the team at the beginning of this season.  I'm curious now that he and his brother are playing in opposite locations again if Jordan may wonder what would have happened had he stayed in Pittsburgh for the last 2 Cup runs.

It was also interesting to learn that both Jordan and Eric were both selected in the same spot in the draft, 2nd overall.  Marc-Andre Fleury was selected first ahead of Eric, while Erik Johnson was selected first ahead of Jordan. 

I'm glad to be able to knock some more numbers off the list.  With hockey season in full swing, I'd like to keep knocking more out...

Thanks for reading, Robert

Inbound and Down #24: Dimeboxes

Does anyone out there type out the entire blog name for Nick?  Everyone just seems to know him as Dime box Nick (well, at least that's what I call him), and I'm sure that there's a lot of people out there that don't know the 6 words that follow Dime boxes on his blog header.

Yes, I had to look to see what the 6 words were as well.  Nick is one of the first people I think of when I have a bunch of extra inserts from current releases, and a couple weeks ago after sending him a batch of inserts, an envelope came my way full of cardboard that hit my needs...

I haven't hit the 2002 portion of my Thome collection on my PC blog, but Nick managed to send a couple of cards of Thome that I needed from that year.  It is like he can read my mind.

A lot of word around Blue Jays twitter the past couple of days that Josh Donaldson would be willing to sign a long term deal to stay in Toronto.  He is the team's star right now, and I'm sure that I am one of a million or more Jays fans that would love to see him stay for the next handful of years. 

I know that Nick collects Vlad Guerrero senior, so I was a bit surprised that VG Jr. wound up in the package.  If this fellow is anywhere near the player his dad was, the Jays are going to have themselves a great player.  He hit .323 in 437 ABs in 2 levels this year, and walked 14 times more than he struck out.  Can't wait to see him on the major league roster!

I saw some of the Heritage high numbers packs at the store last time out, but decided not to purchase any.  I'll probably stick to the base set this year.  Speaking of Heritage base, Nick sent me over 40 of those to put a nice dent into that want list.

The big brick of Blue Jays included a half dozen John Olerud cards.  Every time I see more of these, I get tempted to start an Olerud collection.   Maybe one day...

This 2017 Archives red parallel of Marcus Stroman was the piece de resistance in the envelope.  I showed it off on Twitter when I first got the envelope to thank Nick, as it is #'d 17/25!  I have no doubt that he found this card, buried somewhere in a dime box to send my way.

Thank you again for the great envelope Nick, it is appreciated!!

Thanks for reading, Robert