Good News And Bad News

I’ve been wanting to post for a while now, but my printer/scanner/copier only wants to be a printer/copier now for some reason.  The only feature I really care about is the scanner of course- for my card scannings.  I’ll probably have to get a new one since I’ve already tried uninstalling and re-installing the driver twice and double-checking the wireless connection.  It won’t recognize my computer even when it’s hard-wired directly to the printer.  So that’s the bad news.

The good news is that I’ve had a great run of purchases since I’ve last posted, so there will be many pics to add once I get a new scanner.  It might be a while though, so the cards will keep piling up.  My 2010 Finest set is coming along nicely.  I’ve scored several printing plates and some auto/jersey cards at decent prices.  I’m also working on getting a superfractor from a forum member.  I just haven’t heard back yet, but it’s only been a day since his listing.  Man, those things are hard to find!  There are a handful on the bay, but the owners must think they are made of solid titanium because their asking prices are insane.  I understand there is only one superfractor, but besides being great vets, they’re not autographed and just typically don’t command the type of money the owners believe they can get.  At least it gives me info as to where they’re at for the moment and that they exist.

There is also some news that I will call neutral.  My wife and I have decided to move out of our house.  We like the house itself.  It’s structurally sound, but still needs new windows, siding, insulation, front porch and refreshening inside.  And there’s no garage.  That’s not so much the problem, though.  The area I live in has deteriorated rapidly over the last decade.  We no longer feel safe in our home.  We don’t like letting our kids outside without our supervision.  There were 8 police cars in front of our house 2 nights ago.  That’s happened several times in the last 5 years.  We live about 300 feet away from a murder house where the father molested his daughter and then killed her and then the rest of his family and surrendered to police to eventually get the death penalty in prison.

Several months ago, my wife was putting the kids to bed upstairs when we heard 3 consecutive gun shots directly outside our house.  Some punk kid 15 to 16 years old had shot his gun off directly into the air.  If he had leaned his arm in the wrong direction, that could have gone into my kid’s bedroom.

We had a bullet whiz between our house and the neighbor’s garage a couple years ago.

Some mouth-breather thought it fun to drive through my yard to cut into the alley- tearing up my lawn in the process.

The alley leads to the local high school, so every litter-bug kid in the school likes to dump his trash on my lawn instead of 1 of the 40 trashcans in between here and the school.

There’s a laundry list of other complaints such as our sewer in front of our house is the lowest point for several blocks, so our sewer backs up regularly because of all of the neighbors’ lawn clippings, leaves, branches! and trash.  I swear nobody takes pride in anything anymore.  It’s so depressing.

The bottom line is we want out.  I wish we could pick up the house and move it.  We are already upside-down on the mortgage from the housing market collapse and our improvements we’ve paid to upgrade the house such as a new roof, remodeled bathroom, 2 furnaces (after the first one died at the ripe old age of 3) and restored hardwood floors and tiling.

Anybody want to buy a house? LOL!

All that was to say that it’s time for a fresh start, even though it won’t be financially friendly at all for us.  I’ve always told my wife though, that if the time came where I didn’t feel safe in my own home or walking down the street, then it’s time to get out- no matter what the cost.  So we are currently weighing our options.  None of them are pleasing, but our jobs are stressing and going home offers little relief.  It’s starting to affect our relationship and general happiness.

We’ve done well not spending on luxuries.  We have satellite and internet.  Our grocery bill is bare essentials only, out of necessity. We only buy clothes when we have to anymore.  We love new clothes just like everybody else, but only buy when we have to.

I know the economy is crap and millions of American families are facing similar or worse struggles.  I just know my family has been treading water for a good decade and losing ground, so the time has come to take a chance and make a change.

My card-collecting will probably take a big hit, as it’s really the only hobby of ours that costs substantial money.  I plan on saving what little I can from time to time to only make card purchases when they are the rarest ones for my 2010 Finest set such as the Mosaics, supers, autographs and plates.  Even then, they can’t be over-priced, so all of the variables have to be just right.

Hopefully my next post will be more positive news, like pics of my newest mail-days.

It just felt good to vent about my frustrations lately.

Card-Collecting Goals for the 2013 Off-season.

The off-season is my favorite time of year to buy cards.  Cards for sale during this time tend to be a little cheaper- unless you are going for the top usual suspects like Andrew Luck, RGIII or maybe Colin Kaepernick.  There doesn’t seem to be quite as much competition buying either.  I’ve also noticed the double-edged sword of finding the previous years’ products cheaper (de-valued, if you must) overall, while the key cards in those sets go up or maintain value as usual.

I love seeing who my favorite teams sign in free agency and eventually the draft, and look forward to seeing the new products for the upcoming year.  But there is plenty to keep me entertained in the meantime.  I’m narrowing down what I want to target from the 2012 products.  I’m targeting Lamar Miller, TY Hilton and Coby Fleener.  I like the ’12 Finest design, so much of what I buy will probably stay in that vein.

I will only buy Luck’s, RGIII’s, Kaepernick’s and Rodgers’ when the price and card are right, so I probably won’t land many of them for a while.

I’m starting to collect Mike Wallace in honor of his signing with Miami for 5 years/60 Mil.  Only his rookie cards and upcoming Dolphins cards.  Brandon Marshall is now limited to the rookie parallels I am missing and perhaps a few more in Dolphins uni’s;again, mainly parallels of the ones I don’t have.

My main goal is once again 2010 Finest.

The biggest change is my acceptance of no longer trying to collect the 2008 Masterpeices, 2009/2010 Chrome and 2010 Magic sets.  It’s just too much money.  I’m only collecting the pigskin minis in Magic still.  The rest is for sale or trade for the right card/price.  Also of note is not collecting any more 2008 Score Select parallels.  Love what I got, but too much money to find the remaining, and I really want to concentrate what little financial resources I have on 2010 Finest.

Whatever is not spent on 2010 Finest will be put towards finding parallels of cards I already have.

My hunting has gotten better and my tastes have been refined once again, so I feel good going into 2013.

The way I see it, I have 9 solid months to complete my main goal, which is to complete the refractors, xfractors and black refractors of the 2010 Finest set.  I think I can also get to at least 50% for the Gold and Red refractors.  That’s only about 20 more each.  I would like to get 25 more Mosaic refractors as well.  That will be the most difficult, as they are simply harder to find and cost more.  25 more will double what I have and would be 40% complete towards the set.  Finally, I’m hoping for 2 more superfractors, but will be happy to land just one for the year.  I just want it to be a decent one.

Still Stuck In 2010 And Loving It.

While I’ve been inactive here, I’ve been busily plugging along buying some decent cards.  I’ve also managed to complete several trades that all went okay.  I’d say my trading partners made out the best, but it’s good kard karma for me at the worst.  I’m not superstitious, but I believe in giving good trades so I can potentially get better trades in the future based on a good reputation.  It’s also been allowing me to thin out the collection somewhat, allowing me to concentrate on figuring out what I want in my personal collection.

Most of my recent purchases have been primarily 2010 Finest football, as I have remained relatively focused on trying to find good additions to my collection.  I’ll add the newest pics once I receive my incoming mail-days.  Overall, I’d say I’ve averaged about $5-$6 a card this year- with some less than a dollar and others upwards of $30.  I think I’ve done well so far, but there is a long way to go.  I think I have the patience and time (don’t know about the money) to stay at it for several more years.

Here’s some of the newest additions:

The collection is starting to develop some interesting characteristics.  I know a lot of collectors don’t much care about first serial numbers, last serial numbers, jersey numbers and oddities, but I like them if not just for adding some extra appeal to the collection. I plan on breaking down the statistics once I get about halfway to completion.  I’d say I’m at about 30% complete right now.

State of the Hobby Address

The following is my reply to a thoughtful post I read over at benchtrading.  Champs96ws asks if the hobby of card collecting is dead and gives his opinions on the matter.  Can’t say there’s much to disagree with, but it won’t keep me from tossing in my two cents:

The hobby certainly isn’t dead. It has changed, but the hobby has changed several times and I bet will change again in the future. I just hope future changes and generations improve upon the industry.

I think the hobby of card collecting (much like any business in general) is much like the line on a heart monitor, or the serrated edge of a saw blade or even a stock’s performance. It’s erratic, with ups and downs. Different factors play a part in creating peaks and valleys.

As far as a card company goes, I imagine there is a fine line between making a profit off of a product line while attempting to retain value in the product and meeting the targeted market’s demands of quality and satisfaction for the right price. Manufacturers will try new things or tweak favorites to make money and keep things fresh and interesting. Forget competitors. Their own myriad line of products compete against each other.

If I could change some things, limiting the amount of products while concentrating on improving quality and desirability, would be my first wish. I will admit at least many times it makes it easy and affordable to find cheap cards of players and sets I collect because the market is over-saturated with products. It’s just finding the quality stuff out of the ocean of fluff that makes it difficult, if not fun.

I have no real complaints about the card collecting community in general, though. So far, all of my interactions with collectors online and the infrequent times in person have all been positive and fun. I know from the other trading sites I’m on (same screen name) that it does look like the hobby has slowed. I don’t know if interest in the hobby has slowed. I’d say it’s more of a slump, where lack of money has led to more interest in “safer” investments like high-end, vintage, hof autos, etc..

I do find myself just talking more about the hobby now, since I too can’t afford to buy like I used to love to do. I’ve refined my tastes and just enjoy talking about cards more now.

Chased down another rainbow!

Well, I can’t seem to manage to post as consistently as I want.  Time has been a factor, but also I just haven’t had much spare change to pursue cards the way I’m used to- which is aggressively.  I did manage to snag the 2010 Finest Dwight Freeney Mosaic this week though, so I still managed to complete a rainbow of one of my favorite players from my most targeted set.  That’s always a good day.  Here’s the pics of the completed rainbow.  I couldn’t wait to post it before I received the final two cards from COMC, so it still has their watermark on it.  I hate doing that, but I can’t afford to pay to ship them just yet, and I like to wait until I have a substantial amount of cards in my portfolio before I ship.  It makes for great mail days!

Card Karma

Like the saying goes, some of the best things in life are free.  A friend of mine recently gave me my first Lamar Miller rookie card.  It’s just his base Platinum card, but it’s a nice looking card.  I may have to target some singles in this set. I’m a big Dolphins fan and I think Miller is one of the more promising players Miami drafted last year.  I think he will get the shot to fill Reggie Bush’s role next year when they give Bush the axe.

I probably won’t be able to buy any cards for several months.  I’m getting behind on some bills and have to concentrate on that.  I’m going to ask for cards for Christmas though, so hopefully I’ll get a little fix at the end of the year.  I also have a bet going with the guy that gave me the Miller card.  Whoever has the most total fantasy points (out of the four leagues we’re in together) at the end of the regular season gets a blaster box from Wal-Mart.  I’m currently leading by over 200 points, so I would have to have a complete meltdown in the next 3 weeks for him to pull ahead.  Stranger things have happened, though.

He’s a Colts fan and Marshall Faulk is one of his favorite players, so I gave him a Faulk lot from a collection I had bought recently.  I didn’t charge him, but they went to a good home.

But he decided to part ways with the Miller rookie he had just bought with a lot of other cards from the local card shop because I had given him the Faulks.  It was nice, and it was a pleasant reminder that sometimes you do get back what you give.

Done Brung ‘Em Home

I emptied out my etopps portfolio.  It only had three cards in it, so I had them shipped: