Trying to cross the border

 

I enjoyed seeing the Dodgers go 2-for-2 over in Japan the last couple of days. Not that I was able to see it live. Anything happening between 5-8 in the morning is guaranteed to be slept through by this night owl. I think I've seen maybe 20 sunrises in my entire life, and a few of those were because I stayed up all night.

 

So, I caught a partial rewatch each day, where I had time. Beyond admiring Roki Sasaki, Tommy Edman, Will Smith, etc., I was impressed with the relative ease the whole experience was for the Dodgers and Cubs. This is international travel with all kinds of preparations and issues.

 

Heck, I can't even get a simple envelope of cards across an international border that's 30 miles from me.

 

A couple of months ago I went to send a package to Sportscards From the Dollar Store as I have done many times before. It's shipping to Canada, which is a little more, but I don't mind. But this time, when I gave my package to the post office employee she told me it would cost 42 dollars. Yikes! That's at least $25 more than it normally costs.

 

She didn't have a lot of answers for me -- something about "ground advantage" being removed was about all I got -- but I turned around without paying.

 

Since that day, I've been trying to ship Douglas' package "overseas' through PWEs, bit by bit. I've hardly sent much to Canada via PWE and it took some doing. I've received around eight return-to-senders in the process.

 

A lot of this is me not being willing to dedicate the extra attention to shipping a PWE via "international mail." There's more of an art to it than a bubble mailer through the post office system. So I am STILL trying to send that package. Fortunately I recently learned that Doug has finally received some of the envelopes. There are more to come! I am learning!

 

Meanwhile SCFTDS is sending his usual mailers overseas to my place with apparently no issues? I just got one a few days ago, in the middle of me still trying to ship something from January.

 

 

How about my first Dodger autos for all three of these guys, Terrance Gore, Jake Vogel and Yeiner Fernandez. Vogel is still floating around in Class A. The Fernandez is comically sealed in its plastic case by Panini. Nothing from Panini deserves that kind of protection. Fernandez is among the Dodgers' top 100 prospects, but he's in the 90s. If he makes it to majors, I'll crack it out.

 

 

A nice refractor of on my my favorite Dodgers, looking forward to a full year of cards in which he's actually wearing a Dodgers uniform. X-refractors have been going a long time, Topps should phase some of these varieties out, but it seems to be hoping their are still psychos who will collect 143 different parallels.

 

 

More unnecessary parallels, from all the way back to 2005. This is the "platinum parallel," which looks not much different than the regular base card with the silver logo. If I plaster my face against it, I can tell the difference.

 

 

Doug will always send Bills, of course. My collecting guidelines for the team are still the same -- must currently play for the team or be vintage or from that magic four Super Bowls era. I've still kept the collection to one binder and I want it to stay that way.

 

 

The '80s cards up top will be redistributed to the "one day when I'm desperate I'll collect these sets" quest. The Reed and Smith cards are good for the binder. Bryce Paup is in that weird spot where he came in right at the end of the Super era.

 

And that's everything that connected. Still pretty darn good and impressive to me ... who is still trying to figure out a way to get across the border.