Saturday Morning Musings

I woke up a little too early for my daughter's soccer game, so here are some random thoughts scattered about in my brain.

For about a week I deliberated over spending another $20 on a PSA-graded card for my growing 1970s hockey card collection. It was a player from the Montreal Canadiens dynasty that I didn't have, but I preferred a different year's card that wasn't available. This one was a NM-MT 8 and slightly off-center on both sides. Fair price, but I knew that if I settled for the '72 I'd have less incentive to get the '70.

So I spent the money on something else.

I wasted no time inspecting the flaws of this '55 Bowman Johnny Podres. Just added it to my cart as soon as I saw it. Probably won't send for it until Spring, but when I do he'll have company:

Bing! Managed to squeeze this into the budget after a round of COMC challenges got me to $21. This will be my fourth 1933 Goudey card; I really didn't think I could afford another one in this condition. But I made an offer of $17.75 and it was accepted.

You're probably saying to yourself that no matter who that Montreal guy was (it's Yvan Cournoyer btw) that there's no way a slabbed single from the '70s would be a better value than these two. And you'd be right. But I know that once I get the Bing Miller I'm gonna wanna send it to PSA. Even if it comes back a 2.5 I'll be happy.

We've all collectively decided that sports card price guides are irrelevant*, right? If you're interested in buying a card and you're not sure if the price is fair, you just check recent sale prices of that card. That's what I do. 

*unless Night Owl has an article in said price guide.

But... what about Startling Lineup figures?  How on earth am I supposed to shop for a "vintage" SLU when I don't know what I should be paying for them? I'm primarily thinking of 1988-90 SLUs; just about anything after 1992 is $30 or less.

I had this Frank Viola figure on my eBay watchlist a few days ago. The shipping was very reasonable ($4.00) and the bid price was very low with hours remaining. I didn't buy it, because a) there are 9 SLU figures on my tabletop display and two of them have this exact left-handed pitcher pose. And 2) it's been so long since I've bid in auctions that I forgot when it ended and never placed a bid.

The final sale price was $5.99. Based on the rate of inflation, this is actually much lower than the original buyer paid for it at Wal-Mart 33 summers ago:

That's encouraging... I guess? But that got me thinking: I have boxes of unopened SLUs in my closet. If they're not going to appreciate in value, why don't I just open them? The cards might be worth more than the figures at this point. 

Here's an auction for a Rex Chapman Starting Lineup card:

Here's one that comes with a toy:

As you probably know, my basketball card collection is primarily focused on the late 1980s-1990s. The players I grew up watching and collecting. There's a small part of me that questions this: you already had these cards. Why collect them again when you can collect something new?

Because I kind of can't collect new basketball cards. The market has made that far too difficult.

The completist in me knows that I should have more Stephen Curry cards than Dell Curry cards.

Steph is an all-time great, still in his prime (amazingly) and he has over 11,000 different cards. His dad Dell was... Sixth Man of the Year once. There are less than 500 different Dell Curry cards.

I have just eight cards of the Golden State superstar and thirteen cards of Pops. Not surprising, but certainly not balanced.

My card count is even lower for younger stars like Jayson Tatum, Ja Morant, Joel Embiid, and Luka Doncic. I have eight cards of these players. Combined.

Okay, but I don't really watch basketball. I check the standings and I'll watch a few minutes of Bucks-Celtics here and there but I'm a very casual fan. The sport I pay closest attention to is football. Logically, I should have far more cards of the NFL's young stars in my collection. Right?

Uhhh..

I have three Patrick Mahomes cards in my collection. This is the only base single I have, and only because I completed the 2019 Score set. I've got more cards of his dad though (don't we all?) 

Josh Allen, Jalen Hurts, Justin Jefferson... single digits. Low single digits. I was lucky to snag a couple Allens out of a dime box before he became an MVP-caliber QB. Otherwise I'd have maybe two. Justin Herbert is not represented in my collection. Neither is Joe Burrow. This is unacceptable.

And it's all Panini's fault. 

Every time I'm eager to shop for new football or basketball cards I'm thwarted by the scarcity of retail packs/blasters and the price point. If that doesn't dissuade me, the card designs will. There's such a sameness with Panini sets - the designs rarely change and the card backs are uninspired. 

And what's their flagship football set? Do they even have one? Prizm is the most popular, and I like their parallels but there's no way I'm paying $60 for 24 of these ugly things, even if four of them are shiny:

This is a 2021 Prizm card. Lord only knows when the 2022 edition will drop. Probably after the 2023 season starts. And yeah, their parallels are pretty but there's just too many of them. Here's a Trevor Lawrence card I considered buying:

$60 seems reasonable, right? Maybe? (I take back what I said about Beckett. Still need you, lol) But... there are 35 parallels in 2021 Optic. 35!! That's 30 too many. I don't need all those bells and whistles, I just want a rookie card, dammit. I'd prefer Joe Burrow but his boring base Optic RC is almost $60 itself. Sigh..

I decided to scrap my story. It was a tough decision, because I know it was good and I never, ever say that about my own work. I was eager to find out what people who didn't know her/them would think, but my current co-workers never gave me any feedback and I got reprimanded by my mid-ass manager for sharing it on company time. She's just not as cool as G, not even close.

There were six chapters left to write. The goodbye chapter would have been next. The last two chapters were half-done and exciting. It was the three in the middle, 13-15, that I dreaded. I didn't want to write them, so I didn't. But without those, the story is incomplete. It is what it is. They're not worth the time anyhow.

 

This past Monday I was in the kitchen at work when the girl I'd been avoiding entered. She's been here for more than two months and she seems nice. I call her Sid the Kid or LLB in my mind, because I thought her style resembled something out of an LL Bean catalog. But what do I know about fashion?

She said "good morning" and asked me if I'm a New Jersey Devils fan. I told her I was. She'd seen my shirt (which was actually my jacket) and told me her brother went to one of their games recently. I really didn't want to.. but in my mind I knew I had to.. ask if she liked hockey. So I did, and she does. This was the first actual conversation I'd had with LLB.

Contrast that with the reason I've gone out of my way to avoid her. The subject of my scrapped memoir.

I knew that girl for a year, and towards the end of that year she asked me (in the context of asking other things)  "Do you like sports?" In my entire history of breathing oxygen on this planet I don't think anyone has ever asked me that.

Guys.... am I... a sports fan?

Thanks for reading, and enjoy the Wild Card weekend!


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