Sidney Crosby was destined to be a Penguin!

Tags

#cardboardnerdism, 66, It is your destiny, Mario Lemieux, NHL, Numbers geekery, Pittsburgh Penguins, Sid the Kid, Sidney Crosby, What's in a name

As per usual, I had put my son down to a nap and decided to sort cards. I really should be hitting the gym but I somehow rationalized that staying home is best. For no good reason other than that I am feeling quite lazy today.

I am a self-professed numbers geek. I always try to look for interesting number sequences while sorting cards.  Usually I look for number 13 and that usually brings a smile to my face.

Today, I was sorting cards into team and player specific piles. I have quite a bit of older inserts that have run its course. After about 4 shows, the boxes are picked through quite thoroughly. I am always acquiring new stuff so I want to make sure the older stuff are sent to new homes as soon as possible.

Today I happened to stumble on a number of Sidney Crosby. I have become quite a pro at quickly dissecting piles of cards into their respective lots. It’s quite easy for me to sort a mitful of cards in about 2 minutes. I know that because I actually timed it. The faster I get through these cards, the faster I can move, trade or sell these cards.

I was staring at one of his 12-13 Upper Deck Ice base cards and thinking back to games where I saw Mario Lemieux play. The guy was a magician, greatness in its purest form. Then it dawned on me.  Did you know there are 6 letters that form Sidney’s first name S-I-D-N-E-Y? Did you know there are 6 letters that form Sidney’s last name C-R-O-S-B-Y? Together that is 6 and 6, and that matches Mario’s jersey number! I was astounded about that fact that he was destined to play with the Penguins.

I thought was pretty freakin’ neat. Anyways back to cards, my son will wake up from his nap any minute now.

Wheel I ever learn?

Tags

Being Lazy never works, Don't be a dick, Go to bed

Last night, I was doggedly tired after work, but I had promised a close cousin of mine that I would go out for dinner with him. We had a blast.

As much I liked the outing, it didn’t give me a chance to unwind after work. Typically, I need to come home and relax for about an hour. It helps bring closure to the end of my working day and the start of an enjoyable evening with my wife and son.

I will be the first to admit, that I never truly get to come home and relax for an hour. My son calls for that time and I willingly give it to him.

Upon returning home I still felt the need to relax for an hour. It was almost 10 pm and I poignantly refused to take a snooze right there and then. Like my infant son, I threw a hissy fit in isolation (wife and child were asleep) and demanded that I stay  up for 1 hour.  I took off my coat, removed shoes, grabbed a bottle of water and a pack of (insert manufacturer here) chewing gum. Next I surveyed the main floor of my home making sure all windows are closed, doors were locked and lights were turned off. Eventually I made my way to the study, pulled out a four lane box of cards and started sorting. Lately I have been sorting piles of player specific cards to sell on my favorite hobby forum (Hobby Insider). While digging in the box, I came across a few cards that I hadn’t seen before. They looked cool and I wanted to find out what set the cards were from over the weekend. I was too tired to really look at them at this point in the evening. After all, I wanted to relax right?

I decided that I better place the cards somewhere safe on my desk or I will drop them on the floor. A few minutes later, ungraciously, I knocked the pile of cards on the floor. Now you have to picture my computer desk. It’s an L shape desk (as shown below). Ignore the obvious contradiction of terms used below to describe the L shape. At the point where the “K” and the “L” meet in my beautiful pictorial was the spot where the pile of cards landed. I could have easily gotten out of my comfy overpriced Serta chair and retrieved my fallen heroes. I blame my sense of tiredness in determining that I should toe drag the cards back to my outstretched hand and I can easily pick them up. No sweat right? I meant that literally.

 

The toe drag (which was in line with that of a deep sea trawler) actually worked. I reached down with my left hand to swipe up the loot, managing to somehow force my fallen heroes to see asylum underneath my chair. With razor sharp reflexes, I rolled my chair out of the way to pick them up. Whilst that was successful, I was left holding a batch of cards that were now amputees, just barely shadows of their former selves. I was so intensely angry at myself for failing the mission to bring my fallen heroes back to safe harbor. Instead, they were thrown to the wheels and suffered accordingly. What a great way to notify everyone that I will need to replace the infantry I just blindly destroyed in less than 3 minutes.

 

 

S

H

O

R

T

D

E

S

K

LONG DESK

 

Moral of the story. Don’t be an idiot and go to bed when tired LOL.. well that’s it for now.

 

To Shield or not to shield?

Tags

#cardboardnerdism, cardboardnerd, education shmeducation?, Hockey Cards, sanity rules, Wendel Clark

That is the question and I do not have an answer. I am player collector of Wendel Clark. No surprises there for those who know me well.

I was going over my PC and realized I did not own one single shield card. I had fancied the idea of picking one up on the cheap of any player just to have in my collection. There were some nice shields out there but none that I could stomach paying more than $100 for. I’d rather spend my money on a piece of cardboard that actually means something to me. If you are going to enjoy the hobby, you might as well continue to do it in a  manner that appeases your insatiable appetite. In my case, it has to be Wade Belak, Wendel Clark or Vintage / HOFer cards. I decided that I would wait for the Wendel Clark shield to appear.

I never thought it would happen so fast. Soon after the big Sports Card Expo show, a few people contacted me about a shield that was on eBay. Excitedly, I clicked on the link provided to me and then my head imploded. Not with sheer joy but with horror. The asking price was $1500 and recently lowered to $1300. Given that I could pick up a Mario Lemieux shield for under $1k, I decided that there are limits to my collection needs. A rare moment where sanity took over compulsiveness.  Despite having set aside funds for an eventual Clark shield, I could not bring myself to the cross the bridge where stupidity resides.  The decision to park my funds in other projects such as my son’s education fund was an easy one.

I pride myself in my ability to think quickly on my feet. In my line of work, that is a skill that will save your butt on more than one occasion. I use the same logic with life in general and it has traversed a path into my collecting world. There have been quite a few times where I have made split decisions resulting in pure happiness. Mind you, not all decisions made are rational ones. Did I really need to buy a prison ID themed shirt last week? Haha!

 I am glad that the shield appeared, I got to see it, but I will never own it. I am proud of myself for thinking rationally for once when it comes to my personal collection. In the theme of “ I am Joe and I am Canadian”, I am a 40 year old child and  I am maturing. HAHA!

Absolutely Floored: Panini America Offers a New Glimpse Inside the Production Facility

Reblogged from The Official Panini America Blog:

It never, ever, ever gets old. Ever. I could walk the Panini America printing facility floor every day for the rest of my career and likely not grow tired of its bountiful sights and its tangible buzz. In fact, I had the distinct pleasure of doing that again yesterday, primarily to document the production of two truly spectacular memorabilia cards. (We'll have more on that later.)

Read more… 167 more words

Amazing.. just amazing.. I love the inside story/images from the production floor!

They call him Big Papi as a 3 year old?

Tags

Big Papi, David Ortiz, He learned to crush when he was a lil child, The little big man

I saw this card the other day when I was putting my cards away. This one fell on the floor and instantly I thought it was so cool. I put in a top loader and placed it near my baby boy’s crib. If this isn’t philthy cool, I don’t know what is LOL.

Enjoy!

They always called him Big Papi!

Father to his son. It doesn’t get any better than this :)

Tags

From Father to Son, Life without hockey cards for a while

It’s been a while since my last post. A lot has happened in our household.

My wife and I welcomed a baby boy into our home and life has changed overnight. Gone are the late nights when I am listing cards on eBay or hunting for a good deal online.

Those have been swapped for sleep deprived tasks such as changing a diaper or feeding time.  No longer am I sifting through pages and pages of completed items. Instead, I am relegated to staring at my son’s eyes to make sure they don’t open while I try to lay him down to sleep. There is the odd time where I wake up in a panic, worrying about whether or not he has rolled over in the crib. How fast I forget that a 2 week old doesn’t have the strength to do that yet.

There have been packages from eBay and various deals sitting on my study floor, unopened, gathering dust. I don’t even miss my sanctuary or what others may call the Man Cave. I am sure those bubble mailers are lonely but at least they are well fed, waiting for me to expel them from their fibrous trappings. I will let them lay dormant for now. I’d say cards get better with age, but that is no longer the truth. HAHA.

Today I am at work, my eyelids barely open, slicing through emails and barely understanding their content. This task becomes less painful as I stare at the wall just behind my monitor. It is like staring up at the rafters as they retire a jersey in a hockey game. I can hear the crowd yelling in admiration, I can hear his name over the microphone. There he is. He is my number 99, He is my number 13, He is my love. He is my son.

 

 

Wait! What?!?!? WRONG jersey!!!

Tags

Andre Reed, Buffalo Bills, Buffalo Bills Fan.. don't shoot!!!, NFL, Please only Buffalo Cards from now on=, This one hurts

There are times when I pull a card and it hurts to see the player in another teams jersey. This happened to me with Wendel Clark. I have a very difficult time picking up a card with him in another uniform other than the Leafs. I might give a little on the Red Wings, but I’ll sooner watch paint dry than to see him in a Tampa Bay Lightning Jersey.

Okay enough about Wendel, but this post is about another card.

Andre Reed!

I am a big Buffalo Bills Fan. (I quietly await some sort of cyber joke that shows a hook being dragged across the computer screen like they do to bad comics at the Apollo….. Okay 30 seconds have passed, it looks like I am safe)

I loved Andre Reed. I will only envision him in a Bills Uniform. I saw this card today and almost lost my lunch. I am getting rid of it. I can’t bear to see him in another uniform. Ugh….

Only in Blue and Red of the Bills.. NOooooooooo

I miss hockey

Tags

Missing my Sudbury Saturday Nights, Where art tho?, where or where can you be...

Normally, my NHL biological clock kicks in every October. My wife has to put up with my NHL induced Tourette’s  syndrome. By that I mean, I have a neatly rolled up pair socks that is routinely thrown at the TV when my beloved Leafs make a mistake.

This October, I felt that I could cure my addiction to the NHL by watching OHL, NCAA hockey instead. If it were an NHL game, I wouldn’t dare change the channels, even between periods. I noticed that when I would watch OHL or NCAA, I would flip between channels to watch re-runs of Pawn Stars or Storage Wars. By the time mid November rolled around, I started to flip to other channels while the games were on. By the end of November, I just didn’t bother turning on anything to do with Hockey.

Whilst I love those TV shows, I can’t bare to watch another repeat. I have memorized the shows so much that it wasn’t worth throwing my sock at Dave Hester. LOL.

Today, I really miss the game. I don’t find collecting cards or bustin’ wax as much as fun as it was last year, or any year for that matter.

I know it’s a business. I get it and at the same time, I don’t want to get it. I miss my Saturday nights. I miss throwing the socks. I don’t  think I can endure another Saturday night, helping my wife clean the kitchen, or another part of the house that does not require cleaning. At least in my eyes, if it’s cleaned once, leave it be.

I am giving up hope on this season. Will I solve my addiction to the NHL? Probably not. I don’t think there is a methadone equivalent that could keep me sedated. Good God I hate this feeling.

Good night….

 

 

 

 

Panini America Asks: 'Who Drew?' ID these NBA Sketch Artists for a Chance to Win

Reblogged from The Official Panini America Blog:

Late last summer during the 2012 Rookie Transition Program and 2012 NBA Rookie Photo Shoot, respectively, Panini America officials asked several of the most talented young stars in the league to show off their artistic talents by handcrafting their best off-the-cuff sketches.

Presented below is an art gallery of sorts showcasing just some of our favorites. One thing you'll notice about these one-of-one masterpieces, however, is that we've removed the identity of each artist.

Read more… 180 more words

Enforcers usually have most Happy Days

Tags

2011-12 ITG Enforcers, Curt Brackenbury, Donny Most, Happy Days, Who is the bigger celeb?

I was sorting cards as per usual. I stumbled upon an Curt Brackenbury autograph card from the ITG Enforcers set. After staring at it for a few moments, I could have sworn I had seen his doppelganger. Well wouldn’t you know both of these fellas must have similar DNA. I had no idea Brackenbury starred as Ralph Malph (Donny Most) from the Happy Days TV Show.  There is another doppelganger of two celebs from this TV show but I will save that for another post.

What do you think?

happy enforcer?