Where have I been?????

Interesting that you ask.  I've been here all along.  I just have little to no time for my beloved hobby.  January was my last post and that seems like an eternity ago.  I spend my days in front of the computer working longer than I should.  In addition, I try to maintain some semblance of focus on the important things in life...being a husband and father.  The latter usually suffers more than it rightfully should.  So here I sit, again in front of a computer, far from home and typing out words that, in the big scheme of life, don't really matter much so I thank you for coming back to read and hopefully enjoy what it is I place in written form. 

I am not, nor will I ever be a daily blogger.  However, once every 6 months is also not what I expected to accomplish when I started this blog in 2013.  Writing in this blog is good for my soul.  This hobby relieves stress for me.  It allows me to connect to my inner youth.  It has also taken more than a few coins from my pocket.  All is good when I can sit and focus on sorting, tracking, and plain and simply "playing" with cards.  I wish I could do more of it but neither work nor family should suffer if that is to occur.  We now move on to the August 2014 rendition of "What are these cards doing in my collection"???

All of us that read, write and trade, simply enjoy this hobby.  There is nothing wrong in the approach anyone takes to collecting.  There are a myriad of ways it can be enjoyed.  Whether it's collecting certain player(s), team(s), sets, image settings on cards....it is personal.  This is where I digress into my collection and try to figure what to do with some cards found in the random pack of baseball cards.  I am all about finding the treasure in a random pack.  I have been fortunate enough to find some very nice cards in that fashion.  I have also found cards that, on the surface, do not match my love for the hobby.  For example:

"A Piece of Hollywood" Shirt.  How about a piece of shirt (without the r of course) from Hollywood.  What relation does this have to baseball?  I don't buy a pack or box of cards to find this.  I have no love for this nor do I put this anywhere near my collection.  It sits in a random corner, waiting to be traded, sold or picked up and torn to shreds by a 5 year old that sees it at eye level and wants to place the blue swatch on a Thomas the Train dining car as a table cover.  Can you help me understand why?  Others that fall into a similar pile include:

Really, a wrestling, swimming and fencing relic card?  Thank God there were no pubic hairs floating around in the first two, Ms Hill or Mr Thomas.  Here is where I may differ from others as there are a few individuals that like these cards.  I applaud you but feel free to help me get rid of them in a trade before the 5 year old finds them.

I can also point to some baseball related relic type cards that one will find in a random pack picked up at the local card shop or big box store that won't be mentioned.  Yes, they are baseball related, with baseball players on the card itself but to call these relics is not logical, in my mind.  And maybe I'm misinterpreting these "pulls" from a pack of cards.  Maybe it is just me that has an issue with them.  I'm good with that so feel free to call me out.  For reference, as I place these images in this blog entry, the more I write, the more each section becomes that much more relevant to the collecting world I enjoy. Yes, this is baseball related, but a class ring?  To what, high school?  Anyone can buy one for a mere $50 to $75.  Maybe I'm dating myself with that pricing as I haven't been in that market to know what is today's value.  Useless to me.  For what it's worth, here is the card I speak of:

I'm sure I will contradict myself with these last pictures.  They have some level of collectability to me so I'm not throwing them out completely but again, you can find thousands of these daily at every ball park in the country if you really wanted to find them.  My question is why are they in a baseball card.

 

 

You could say that these are as collectible as the piece of wood in a bat card but at least the bat, in theory, was a "game used" relic.  And yes, "game used' can be interpreted very liberally.  We can argue all day about how the actual piece of wood could be from little Billy's bat that some schmuck sold to Topps or Upper Deck as "authentic" but the intent is to get you "closer to the game".  The ticket gets you closer to the seat that you rested your a** in for four hours on any given summer evening.

Interestingly, as counter point to this entire entry, I do enjoy collecting the Topps manu-relic/manu-patch cards inserted in the boxes sold at retail outlets across the US.  So yes, I understand the hypocrisy in that so I will leave you this entry knowing I speak of WTF's out of only one side of my mouth. The other side is open to interpretation.  And yours is appreciated.

Until next bat time on this same bat channel, I bid you adieu.  Let's hope I'm not writing my next entry in 2015.