The Continuing Saga

*coffee is ready now, time to pour a cup and get ready for a new post*

*takes a sip*

The season of downsizing has continued.

If you are just reading about this, last year I made a big decision that I was finally going to start downsizing my collection.

First, it was unloading 75,000 base cards to my father. Then it went on to moving hundreds of relic and autograph cards and sending them to fellow blogger for trade around Christmas time.

And now, on Monday, my father came over for another visit and once again I took some time away from school to make a trade with him and continue the downsizing.

For about four hours, I dug through boxes again. Getting rid of base that didn't have any meaning and pulling out ones with great photography and from my favorite era of collecting, 1995-1999.

 

 

 

 

 

In the end, another whopping 14,403 cards left my collection. Yes, I counted them by hand so I can keep my numbers updated on here accurately. 

In exchange,

I added 41 cards. Yes, just 41 cards and nothing that is outstanding, just stuff I wanted.

Here are a few key ones,

(one of the top rookies in the NBA this year)

 

Like I said, nothing outstanding, just stuff I wanted.

The important part with a trade like this is the amount of cards I was able to unload. I am sure there is more to come from this downsizing when spring comes around and I get the opportunity to get on spring break.

I have a ton of 80's sets that don't interest me and possibly some others as well. 

My next move is to update my numbers on here which will probably also mean another new small milestone post coming up.

My goal this year was to trade/send more cards out I don't want for my PC, then adding more that I actually do. I am on great pace for this.

I hope everyone is having a great Saturday.

In comments, let me know how you are approaching your collecting. Downsizing? Adding? Trading? Selling?

*takes final sip of the post*

*Coffee Card Blogger Out*

Season's End

The season is officially over.

Last night we held the end of the year coaches meeting to discuss the good, the bad and what needs to be improved for the league with the AD.

Between all of the coaches for boys and girls 3rd-4th basketball teams, there was more good than bad.

I would say that was also the case for our basketball season.

In our final game as Team 2, which was last Wednesday, we pulled out a 26-19 win making it three wins in a row to end the season. We could have won by more, but we were trying really hard to get every girl a basket. Which is really tough when it's a team of 17, but we did manage to get 13 of those girls to score. That to me was a huge highlight.

Another highlight was our end of the year party which took place the day after on Thursday.

For a few months, I gathered together some cool basketball items to hand out something to each girl. With some assistance from Twitter as well, I was able to gather some card items to assure that each girl got some WNBA cards to hopefully give them some drive going into next season.

My wife found these awesome bags that I could pack the items into.

Here are all of the cards both donated from Twitter and my own collection,

(the packs were very generous from a group on Twitter)

There's some Caitlin Clarks mixed in these as well.

Here was the final product. There were also stickers, bracelets and hair attire in these bags as well.

The girls were also served a pizza and cupcake party along with a game of girls vs parents. I scored a basket in that game if that counts haha!

It was a fun first season as an assistant coach. Next year I should be in position to be Head Coach and I have already begun lesson plans for practice and some plays for games. It's always good to be prepared in advance. 

And I don't want to forget what I learned this year that I could use next year.

Here is the overall look at the season:

Team 1 5-3

Team 2 3-3-1

Lost Combined Team Game 0-1

Team record:8-6-1

Before I close out, I wanted to share a gift that one of the girls gave me as they were leaving,

 

I will treasure this forever.

Hope everyone has a great Wednesday.

*Coffee Card Blogger Out*

Time To Be Scared

*takes a sip of coffee, didn't know I was out of creamer so had to use my wife's creamer which is intended more for Christmas time and not now. Oh, well, it's still a good cup of coffee. Time to kick off a new month with a new #CardsOverCoffee*

October is known to many as a "scary" month with Halloween coming up at the end of the month. Many celebrate every day like it's Halloween, which is what I did a lot of in my youth. That was because I grew up watching a ton of horror movies with classics like Halloween, Friday The 13th, Child's Play and Nightmare On Elm Street among many others alongside my mom. My mom was a huge horror buff and when I wasn't watching cartoons, we watched Jason cut somebody's head off. Sounds twisted and probably something most would be offended by today, but, don't worry I turned out okay.

As I got older and met my wife, those days of watching horror movies went out the door and October became Halloween Candy month. However, it doesn't mean if a horror movie that I used to watch is on TV, that I won't watch a few minutes of it. As I have always said, I am a nostalgic driven person. So memories of my mother and I watching those together always kicks in.

For the most part though, it's all about the candy.

*takes a sip, now wanting a small KitKat bar...gimme a break, gimme a break....break me off a piece of that KitKat bar!*

One of my favorite Easter Candies is the Cadbury Eggs with the goopy center that resembles a real egg. I have noticed the last few years that they have released a Halloween version known as a Screme Egg with a scary green center.

I finally picked one up hoping for something cool and delicious.

And I was left disappointed. There was one speckle of green and it didn't have the flavor as the Easter version. I expected Slimer to be falling out of this...but it was more of a yolkless egg.

The same day I found the egg to try...look at what else I found,

Yes, CARDS! I found cards!!!!

As I got closer though, it got scary and I realized why the cards still remained.

*takes another sip, the peppermint mocha creamer isn't as bad in the fall as I would have thought. preferably though, I rather have this for winter*

There was quite a few boxes on the shelf with baseball, WNBA and hockey on it. I was mainly focused on the Chrome and Prizm baseball. Just like many other collectors, I like my shiny.

But as I began to grab one, I got spooked and took a step back. The price of a hanger box was what??? $26.98!!!! Then saw the price of a Prizm baseball Mega was $49.95 and Prizm Blaster box $34.98. Who is paying those prices?!

Even a WNBA blaster box of Prizm was $34.98 as I thought, for half a second, about grabbing one just for fun. Not for that price.

Then there was those Topps Complete sets will probably sit there for years as well at a $60 price tag and even the hockey blasters, which I always found hockey on the shelves even jumped to $30 per.

Retail is scary. You might as well leave Michael Myers standing by the section waiting to stab us when we see those prices. We go from not being able to find any at all because of flippers and now the flippers have driven up the price and now don't even want the product anymore. All around the hobby in the past year or so has been a lose-lose when it comes to wanting to open something retail.

Now with Fanatics coming on board soon, is it time to be really scared in the hobby? Not sure, we will have sit back and wait.

*takes a sip before finishing up today's post*

I probably will not be picking up another one of those eggs or retail at those prices. I liked to be scared by horror movies, not by my hobby.

In comments, let me know your thoughts on the pricing increase, if you have tried one of those Screme Eggs and what your favorite Halloween Candy is.

*Coffee Card Blogger Out*