Don't surprise me

We're a want list family.

When nearing major gift-giving days on the calendar, I both issue and require want lists. The more specific the list, the better.

I'm not much for surprises. Surprises are for lazy people who don't want to make a list. Make a list! You'll get what you want and the person giving won't feel like an inadequate loser when you don't like what they gave you.

Not once has a Christmas been ruined because there weren't enough surprises. But a few have been ruined because someone was waaaaaaaaay off target in their gift selecting because there was no list because everyone was too busy dancing through magical flowers in Surprise Me Land.

Make a list!

This is why the want list on my blog is so detailed. I need to tend to it more than I do, but for the most part it features everything that I desire in mind-numbing detail. This is because I know what I want and people shouldn't have to guess like we're two newlyweds. Conversely, I am much more appreciative of other bloggers' blow-by-blow, player-by-player, set-by-set, number-by-number want lists than of non-existent lists or five-name lists that say "I collect this player." "This player" has 50,489 different cards, could you narrow it down just a tad?

I know people have busy lives. But I think you get what you want if you actually express what you want. The mysterious stranger/vixen thing wears on people very quickly.

One person with a detailed want list is Jim from garveyceyrusselllopes. I enjoy going through lists like these, cherry-picking cards from various years that I know are Just. What. He. Wants.

Recently, I sent gcrl a PWE with a couple of cards off his Nefarious 9 list (another excellent want list idea). He responded by sending his own PWE with cards hand-selected off my want list. It made me so happy. It was just what I wanted! I'm getting holly jolly just thinking about it.

One of the cards was the Kaz Ishii Leather and Lumber card at the top of the post. I really appreciate these out-of-sight-out-of-mind wants from the dark decade when I wasn't collecting. Who knows when I'd ever figure out that I need that card.

As fool proof as want lists are in receiving what your exact request, they require upkeep. Regular feeding and watering. And if you don't remember to cross off cards when you get them, then you receive this 2006 Fleer Danys Baez and realize that you didn't need it.

This came very close to being another Danys Baez situation, except I only thought I didn't need this.

It turns out the card that I had wasn't the card you see here at all.

It was this card:

Confused?

Yeah, that's what Topps likes to do.

These are two different cards of Shawn Green.

One is the Green base card, which I already had, and one is the checklist card, which I didn't have and Jim sent to me.

I will ease my aggravation in having two cards that look identical on the front by reviewing that obsessively complete Total checklist. Only a Dodger fan from 2004 has any idea who Brian Steffek and Jerome Milons are.

Final card and it's a Bastardo!

I didn't know there was a Bastardo card featuring him in a Dodger uniform. Had I known that when I wrote this post maybe I wouldn't have been so weird when I wrote that (I don't know how I've avoided going on a deleting spree while looking through the blog archives).

And as usual when I receive what I want, I receive a second present when I am able to delete wants off of the list. It's doubly exciting when you have a want list!

So, I know a few of you have some time off coming up in a matter of weeks. Why don't you pick a day and make a big fat want list for yourself. The more detailed the better. Don't worry about seeming greedy or needy or obsessive. You're not Juliet and I'm not Romeo. Surprises are overrated.

Make a list. You'll get exactly what you want.

Let's see your mom, your kid or your significant other do that on Christmas morning.