How Do I Let Her Down Easy?

I know my mother-in-law's heart is in the right place, but it's been really tough opening up presents from her the last few years.

Don't take this the wrong way as I know it's not about the presents, I know what Christmas truly is about, but continuing adding stuff to my already packed card room that I don't care much for, puts me in a spot.

I always tell her thank you and that I found some good cards in there as I know it's about the thought, but.....

I can't continue to keep stacking junk wax sets especially since most I already have. 

  

This year's addition was a 1988 Topps baseball set. I have already gotten this one from her a couple of years ago and already had one myself before that.

So, this will take up shelf space and be something that I will probably never open and look at.

Knowing this now, what would you do in my spot? How do I let her down easy on getting me anymore of these? Do I tell her the truth? Do I just continue taking them and deal with it? Do I try to lead her elsewhere? Do I tell her just grab me a cup of coffee and I am good?

Let me know in comments how you would approach this.

Hope everyone has a great Saturday, it's Wild Card Weekend in the NFL, and just because the Giants aren't in doesn't mean I won't be watching! I will be spending my NFL time rooting against the Eagles and Cowboys as expected.

*Coffee Card Blogger Out*

Is This Really Worth $50?

My Mother-In-Law has always been great to me, when she finds something at yard sales, antique shops or at Walmart that she thinks I would enjoy, she will buy it.

She has picked me up boxes of cards, baseballs she thought were signed, stuffed animals featuring my teams, and even lunch a few times. Whoever turns down a hoagie?

Her latest buy though has me scratching my head a little as I am wondering how badly she overpaid for it.

Two weeks ago, my Mother-In-Law went to an older gentleman's yard sale and was looking around when she found a picture that was hidden behind a stack of books that stood out to her. She thought I would enjoy the picture as it featured two Yankee legends, so she asked the man how much and he said $50 as it's a rare piece. He also told her they were no longer printing anymore of this photo from the negative so it could only go up over time.

She then purchased the item and called me to make sure I was home as she found something amazing for me.

I immediately jumped to some big card purchase, so I rushed home as I was out running errands at the time. Who needs groceries with today's prices anyways!!

I was at home well before she arrived, so I waited like a dog by the door whose owner was coming home soon.

Upon her arrival, I peeked out the window and saw no box of cards and only a photo she carried in.

That's when she handed me this photo and told me the story behind it. The photo features Lou Gehrig and Babe Ruth in a photo I hadn't seen before. It looks pretty cool, but for $50?. Not sure that cool.

The item was created by The Bearly Collection Of Rare Negatives.

It's not a company I had ever heard of either. Of course I don't buy a lot of photos anymore as I store all of that stuff in totes since I currently don't have the space to display it. Maybe someday.

She then wanted me to do some research on the photo and find out if she overpaid for it and I did, except I couldn't find any information or another photo like it on eBay at least.

That's where you guys come in. Let me hear your thoughts. Did she overpay? Get a deal? 

And also let me know if you have you seen another like this? Own a Bearly Collection photo yourself? 

Hit me up in comments below!

Magic In A Bag

*takes a sip from a Mcdonald's coffee...hold the floor...what? Why wasn't it the home brew? We will find out in a few*

Well today didn't go quite as planned.

I woke up around 5:30 with some bad stomach cramps that led to some back pain which led me to finding out for the 8th time in my lifetime I have kidney stones. Today's round I believe is the most painful ones I have ever experienced.

This was my reaction this morning

To avoid putting too much into my system just in case I needed surgery, I skipped over my morning coffee and took the hour trip to the ER. We have an ER within 20 minutes of where I live, but, the one that is an hour away is where my Urologist is from and it's a better hospital so I suffered through longer pain to reach the better of the two choices.

Four hours of no coffee, pain and pain meds later, I am home but not without a stop to McDonalds for some coffee before doing so. I couln't make it a full day without any you know, who can?!

*takes another sip of hot coffee. Really needed this today*

So I figured while I am on the low today, I would put up a new post and one that has been backlogged since summer.

My mother-in-law back in August was at an antique shop and saw a baggie of baseball cards she knew I would appreciate and grabbed them for me. Yeah, she is cool like that and I expect you to be jealous. Later that day she dropped off said cards for me to do my usual digging in.

*another sip of coffee, feeling like I need a nap after this long morning but I will wait*

I had no idea what to expect from the cards, but I had a gut feeling it was going to be loaded with Donruss 90 and Fleer 91.

Low and behold....Yup, 91 Fleer. No big names either. Not a good start when you find bright yellow to kick things off. (there wasn't any 90 Donruss or a single card from '89 Donruss either)

Next card was this Kirby Puckett. I never truly appreciated cards like these until this year. All of those early Bo Jackson "Bo" cards, players posing with their nicknames and family and all of those early 90's subset cards that were funky back then but so much cooler now.

Not too bad here for player finds with Paul Molitor and John Smoltz

Then the baggie started to heat up with a few surprises. Unlike my coffee that started to cool down. There are only two ways to have McDonalds coffee, scalding or ice cold. There is no happy medium with the cups they use.

*takes a sip of ice cold coffee. Hey it works after the day I had*

Kicking off the rest of the baggie were some parallel and insert finds,

Topps Gold with Omar Vizquel being the best of the group

Kelloggs Sport Flix. Sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeet!!!!!!!!!!!!!! These are the taste that adults have grown to love. See what I did there?

 

The only good thing to come out of 1991 Fleer, Pro Visions. I was quite content with finding this one and the fact it's Don Mattingly for my Yankees PC

Topps Black Gold in it's glory.

And then came a 25 count plastic box,

Right on top is some Topps Gold

And here they were, all Red Sox of course for this Yankees fan. But, that's the way it goes in my area with all of the Red Sox fans here. But, I do like Wade Boggs so I didn't complain too much.

And to end it some 1994 Topps base. All of which were Red Sox.

I am not sure what she paid for the small ziplock full of cards but hopefully not too much. There were some fun finds especially the Pro Vision and especially the Kelloggs cards which I can see why so many on the blogsphere collect them. They have really grown on me this year as well.

Some of these cards I will be passing along to trader buddies while the rest I will keep for my collection.

Speaking of passing along, I hope those stones pass by weekend's end. Those are not something I want to keep for my collection. I would take all of the 1991 Fleer instead. So if any of you want some kidney stones for 91 Fleer, give me that deal all day long.