This weekend is the first card weekend that I have enjoyed in more than two months.
I hope I don't have to tell you what a card weekend is.
OK, fine. A card weekend is supposed to be a weekly occurrence. On card weekend, you spend one day buying cards, one day packaging and mailing cards, and one day sorting cards. You may combine activities on one day if you like. But most card weekends involve all of the above activities.
A card weekend does not include a card show. That's known as "card nirvana weekend."
In these last two months, I've managed to cover the sorting part almost every weekend. And I've mailed off a card package or two maybe three or four times. But until yesterday, I hadn't purchased any cards anywhere in more than a month.
As for doing all three? On one weekend? Might have been July. Or maybe June. I'm such a collecting slacker.
So when the time came to celebrate another card weekend, I didn't know if I could still do it. Would I know where to go? Would I know how to act?
It was nothing but collecting nerves. Of course, I knew what to do. I marched into the card aisle at Target and bought one rack pack of Topps Series 2, one repack rack pack, and one blaster of Allen & Ginter.
The Series 2 rack pack was a disappointment. Please, Topps, stop putting Marlins on cards. Nobody wants them.
The rack pack was a good time as always. I pulled a 1971 Topps and 1973 Topps card back-to-back. Both are heading off in card packages. The blaster was decent because I have precious few 2013 A&G and that first blaster always does the trick.
Out of the first pack came this:
I stared at it dumbfounded. Topps could have put one of those Qubi things in the blaster and I'd have a better idea what do with it. I have a known dislike for college football for about 257 reasons and Nick Saban is reason 249. I had no clue what should become of this item.
So I closed my eyes and put it in a card package and mailed it off. Maybe that person will have a better idea.
Speaking of mailing, I am very proud of myself because five envelopes went out in the mail today. I didn't mix anything up either. I guess it's really true: once you learn how to collect and trade, you never forget.
And despite my recently ended budgetary moratorium on mailing and purchasing cards, people continue to send me cards. They also still read what I write here. This is proof:
The Stargell up top and these cards are from Kyle. He's a Dodger fan and he complimented me on my blog recently.
That's a great way to get a trade going. So I sent him a few Dodgers and he sent these A&G needs.
He also sent a couple of minis for my frankenset binder. I'm not crazy about either one. But there's a spot for both of them in the binder and that makes them instantly useful. And they're a heck of a lot better than the Teixiera and Sandoval that have been staring at me from those pages for too long.
I also received this mini Adrian Gonzalez card from Steve of The Card Chop (as always, base card alongside to scale).
He read that I came up quite a bit short on my Dodgers in a Topps mini break and had this card to spare (I just got an email from someone offering some more Dodger minis. But I'm still looking for Ryu, Ramirez, Kershaw, Capuano, Crawford and M. Ellis).
He also had this card to spare:
Cute.
All the Braves fans are such wise acres. Is it because they have to listen to Chip Caray all the time? All those losing seasons in the '70s and '80s? I'll figure it out someday.
I don't like this card any better now that Wilson is a Dodger. Mini Starved-For-Attention is up for grabs.
This super-fine 1956 Topps card of Dave Pope arrived from Commish Bob.
He read my "lament" about the condition of my Dave Pope card.
Here is that card again:
It's not a bad little card. I would have happily hung onto it for many more years. But I'm happy Commish Bob found one that fits in with the rest of my '56s better.
I'm not sure what I'll do with well-loved Pope. I'll be happy to keep it, though, because it's another reminder of that great day when we pulled a bunch of 1950s cards from a brown paper grocery bag more than 30 years ago.
The rest of my card weekend, unfortunately, is taken up by the job. I'll probably squeeze in a little card sorting when I can.
I'm just happy I got back on the bike again. It's good preparation, too.
"Card nirvana weekend" is only a month away.
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