Vacation surprise

So I am on vacation this week. It's the old "use them or lose them" type of vacation. No real plans. Maybe get to a ball game. Or a day trip or two. But I had a great surprise today when my second cousin, three times removed showed up on my doorstep today.

Ha HAAAAAAAAAAA!

Anytime Kenny shows up, I give him a post on this blog. So have at it Kenny.

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This blog has been far too boring, so let's spice it up with my Top Ten Most Painful DP Eliminations of the Day:

Starting at number 10 is Jeff Kent. But after his run-in at second base, he'll need to change his name to Jeff Kent Walk Anymore.

Number 9 is Ray Boone. You can already see the pained look on his face and he just came to realize the error of his ways before gravity takes over. It's been good knowing you, Ray.

Number 8 is Erick Aybar, doing the splits to avoid the hits, but soon his bits will be turned into grits.

At number 7 is Brent Gates, admiring his throw over to one while the runner turns him into number two.

At six is Rey Ordonez, flopping and high kicking his way into a trade to the New York Traction-politans.

Number 5 is Tony Womack who is divided into three separate players and making 6 outs on one play.

At number 4 is Billy Ripken, attempting to make the throw off balance, but only causing his spleen to explode. What a Fuck Face.

Number 3 is Frank Duffy, looking down at the death he has caused, only to see the light at the end of the tunnel racing towards him as he returns back to Earth.

Number 2 is Chris Getz, moments before his nards are torn from his body, ending the family line of Getz players in the MLB. Our condolences to The Getz Family. And Chris' nards.

And my most painful DP elimination of the day goes TO..........

David Eckstein, who is so eliminated he has transcended all time and space is now resides within a black hole, trapped for all eternity suspended in a netherworld between life and death, being and not being.

 Enjoy the rest of your week, and you know what we always say.

Three PWE for me.

I started my vacation today. A week off. No plans at all besides doing some things around the house that need attention. Maybe the wife and I can get a night out. All depends on the pocket book. I've been trying to whittle down the stacks or cardboard on my desk. I'm hoping to get some mailers out this week cuz daaaaaaaaaaaamn - I need to mail some stuff. I'm better than this, I like to think. At the very least, I should strive to be better than this. It's important to have goals and stay on target.

Even if it's only two meters wide

Let me thank three people that sent small but amazing PWEs to me over the past few months. Starting with Matt over at Sport Card Collectors. Matt grabbed a stack from TTS (see comment about needing to mail stuff), and sent a small PWE my direction.

Lots of colored borders, from gold to purple to green and bi-color. I believe that is the first gold border from 2009. Was that foil comment about 56 years of collecting angled like that on all the cards, or did it just happen to be perfectly positioned under Bobby's plant foot? And a card of Quentin doing one of the three things he did: hitting a dinger. The other two were striking out and fighting with Greinke. Who hasn't wanted to punch Zack, though?

Next up is Dennis from Too Many Verlanders. One thing Dennis love to do is work on want lists. always sending me cards out of the blue that knock a few here and there. This mailer followed his standard MO.

I am still working on 2016 GQ base and inserts. SPs are a "get when the price is right" pickup. And another for the one and done Hometown Heroes set. Boxes of that stuff is SO cheap, with 3 hits in it. I really need to pick one up.

Lastly, CommishBob from Five Tool Collector. Not sure where he went for these, but sure glad he did.

Boom. Shacka. Lacka. Technically, box Fox's are in the player project, though that 1960 is a MAJOR upgrade to the current card in the binder. Both make the cut into the White Sox team sets for the respective year, knocking off a couple needs. And no, I am not building the '56 set. Mr. McMillan makes the double play binder with that sweet background image.

A big thanks to all three. I know I have stacks set aside for you all, somewhere on this desk. I need a search party.

What a distance a dollar makes

I need to get back to blogging. It's been a month since I have posted, and it's not like I don't have content. So as I groove back in, allow me this simple post about two recent eBay pickups. We'll start with the 2nd card first.

This is my 3rd or 4th Topps Now card. I have only ever bought one directly from Topps. Othewise, secondary market all the way. Every so often, I will search for White Sox Topps Now cards to see if I can snap one up at a cheap price. I guess Topps put out a set for the American and National league starters, so someone must have bought it and broke it up. But I couldn't pass this card up. I have no idea what the set cost, but selling it with a BIN of $1.99 with a buck shipping seems like a loss. And a loss for me if I didn't pick it up.

Now, for a dollar more, $0.99 winning bid and $3 shipping, I picked up a card for my Project 2005.

It's not a certified auto of Freddy Garcia, but all his certified cards tend to be Mariner cards. I have only seen a single card of Freddy with a certified autograph a Sox uniform. And the price of that was a joke. However, this auto looks authentic, and at the price it was listed, should it not be a real sig, the seller still made little money. This card took a while to arrive, though. Almost a month from Florida. I was about to message the seller about the card when I got a call from my daughter a couple weeks ago while I was Uber'ing.

"Dad, you have mail from Venezuela."

Um......what?

That is a DHL package, and the label tells me it came from Santa Eduvigs, Venezuela. And inside the mailer was a brown paper bag with my address on it, stating "United States" at the bottom. So it wasn't like a misrouted PWE that DHL took under their wing to correct. It appears this sale originated in South America and was shipped from same. At $3. If the seller of the Abreu made little money, this seller had to take a loss. But it does tick off another player for Project 2005. Sixteen to go.

I hope this video from some Venezuelan band is not too offensive. Though, titled "Black Panties", I'm taking a real chance.