Not a good time for gift cards

I tried a second time to spend my Target gift card from Christmas today.

Since I recently won a blaster of 2018 Topps in a contest at Waiting 'Til Next Year, I figured it was pointless to save the gift card for 2018 Topps. A blaster of that stuff is plenty, it should satisfy the craving for the rest of the year.

Those of you who store unopened card product in your homes are probably now saying why don't I save the gift card for when Heritage comes out later, or maybe Stadium Club or Allen and Ginter months from now?

First of all, there's no way I can keep a gift card for that long. I'm not my parents or other people's parents who can whip out an envelope filled with unused gift cards on call. The point of free money is to spend it and BUST OPEN THAT STASH OF CARDS IN YOUR CLOSET NOW!

So, I was going to spend that gift card today, one way or the other.

I ended up spending it on "the other." The card aisle at this time of year remains a depressing site.

The only baseball card product that I could find on what was otherwise a fully stocked card aisle was a blaster of Panini something or other, one lonely Topps Update pack stuffed with some football packs, a couple of repack boxes (but not the good kind), and a fat pack of 2017 Heritage High Numbers crammed into a box of My Little Pony stuff on the bottom shelf.

Oh, and there were these:

I've mentioned these before.

Here in New York State you can buy all the 2017 Detroit Tigers team sets that you want.

But nobody is taking Target up on this fabulous offer because everyone here LIVES IN NEW YORK STATE.

These Tigers team sets have been hanging out at this particular Target for the last nine months, just hoping one of the 15 Tigers fans in this area will see them and realize their dreams have come true. But, of course, here they sit untouched.

OK, someone has touched them because a couple were moved onto other hooks in the hopes of enticing one of the many Yankees, Mets or Red Sox fans around here to give the Tigers a try (because there are no Yankees, Mets or Red Sox team sets).

Needless to say, I did not use my gift card to purchase a Tigers team set. Or any of the football or basketball all over the place. Or any of the four different kinds of Star Wars blasters on the shelves (SIGH!).

And now I'm going to depress the heck out of all of you.

I ended up using the gift card on:

Personal care products.

Yeah, I know.

But I needed them. And the cards being offered were not fulfilling my needs.

I did rescue the Heritage High Numbers fat pack from the pink and purple Pony box.

It was not inspiring.

This was the insert. The Oakland A's again.

They really need to put names somewhere on these things if they're showing rookies from the Oakland A's. I have every player from the 1970s memorized, you expect there to be room in my head for a 2017 newbie from the A's??

*Goes to the internet to look up name*

It's Jharel Cotton.

OK, I've heard of him. I should know him, too, because he's a former Dodger. But stick that A's cap on him and I've lost interest.

Heritage did find it in its heart to bestow upon me a shortprint card, which as you know is not a guarantee in your pack of Heritage (the main reason why I've never completed this set).

I also landed a Lithuanian.

And a Zastryzynyian.

OK, this card was cool. One cool card from the pack.


The lesson here, gift-giving people, is don't give Target gift cards in December or January, because this collector anyway can't wait for February or March. Or June or July. It's a baseball card bonanza at that time.

Or better yet, get one of those ebay gift cards.

Then I can get whatever I want when I want.