One of these things doesn’t belong
Actually, more like all of them, and specifically to my personal collection. Well, a couple of them are borderline. A couple of them were also complete mistakes. Let’s start with those!
Random Rookies and Refractors
By “Rookies” I mean both official rookie cards and “early card from people who may/may not suck” and by “Refractors” I also mean parallels, diecuts, sparkles and any other bullcrap a card company can think up. That was actually going to be the title of the post, “bullcrap they thought up”, but this sounded a whole lot nicer.
What better way to start a flood of mediocrity than with this…
Yup. That’s a 1992 Manny. I already had one, but it’s graded, and this will go in my player collection binder. You know it’s all downhill from here people…
Back to the Show
The title works in a number of ways. Most as a return to form as well as a call back to cards I picked up at the end of January. For myself, writing has always helped with the stress of things, or being entirely to stressed out to write was entirely a double-edged sword. Also, the shear backlog of stuff is now at the point where I either embrace it and get off my ass and do something about it, or it explodes into a psycho-post of everything all at once and everyone runs away screaming. Lets try and minimize the damage, shall we?
For starters, these next couple posts will be both large, and brief. These are all cards from the card show, and there are a lot. I’ll break them up into several categories. If you don’t feel like slogging through these with me, I totally understand. I hope to see you on the other side once I start talking about things that have actually happened within the same calendar month.
For now, let’s just get this over with and jump right in.
Where the hell have I been?
That’s a fair question. I just wish I had a more interesting answer. Right here. I haven’t gone anywhere. I’ve been busy worrying, planning, contemplating, and trying to float in a sea of uncertainty.
My company is “re-organizing”. Anyone that’s seem Office Space knows that that usually means huge trouble. In this particular case, I worked at the top of a holding company pyramid, with multiple sub-companies. Those smaller companies are getting sold out, divided up and only the primary company will remain, revamped into competing in a new market.
You would think that was a good thing. Being at the top, it would sound like I’m safe. The problem is that 99.9% of my work is/was for those smaller companies. We were a “service” to any sub-company that needed our help. The smaller companies either want to hire their own people (cheaper, fresh out of college people), or just don’t have the budget for us as a whole. Also, the original parent company, while needing some services, certainly doesn’t need an entire department, and especially not full time/salaried employees.
I’ve talk with people from multiple departments. We’re all facing this together. Any group that was a overhead/corporate function is in the same boat. HR, IT, Accounting, etc. Everyone is either getting split up, reassigned, or let go.
So, I’m sort of freaking out.
People in IT have told me I’m “essential” to web operations, and not to worry. People in the proposal teams told me I’m helpful to their efforts, and not to worry. People in the software divisions tell me they’ll still need my help, and not to worry. It’s hard not to worry. Each and every one of these people, if given the choice, would save their own people (and rightfully so) before sticking their neck out for someone in another department. That’s not a fault of theirs, just a reality of the corporate world.
It seems so draining, so cold, so uncaring. The people at the top, selling companies, shifting board members, only care about paychecks. Who’s going to get paid for what. People are a line item. A column in an Excel spreadsheet.
I’ve been told to “hang on”, that “good things are coming”, that we’ll be “taken care of”. I don’t believe that for a second. Still, I hang on. I wait.
I’m preparing as best as I can. Like a hurricane, you can’t really be sure how it’s going to affect you. You stock pile supplies, gather resources, make sure all the loose ends are taken care of, and you wait. The storm may pass you by, leaving little damage and bringing blue skies. It also may completely decimate your house. Gotta be prepared for both. The resumes are refreshed, the portfolio is getting updated soon, linkedin is saving job searches (just in case).
So, that’s where I’ve been. On the corner of “Freaking Out” and “Hoping for the Best”.
Baseball cards seemed rather moot under the circumstances.
Quick Olympic Update
I’ve been busy with work, and scanning stuff from the card show in my non-existent spare time, which I promise to post at some point, but I wanted to toss out a quick update on a set in hope that someone might have the cards I’m looking for.
I’ve been trying to put together the 2014 Topps Olympics set and I’m just 6 short. I have 80+ dupes, and about 50 or so of the various metallic parallels, but I’m still missing the following:
#24 – Patrick Deneen
#33 – Dylan Ferguson
#47 – Lindsey Jacobellis
#51 – Hilary Knight
#88 – Lindsey Vonn*
#96 – Agnes Zawadzki
* I do have a Bronze and Silver parallel of Vonn, but no base version.
If anyone out there built the set (or is currently building), and has dupes of these, I’d love to trade. They’re all available on COMC but they’re about $1/ea, and that’s just crazy talk. I can get the whole 1-100 for $9 on ebay, or a “Pick 10” auction for $2.50. I’d much rather trade with one of you guys. Anyone out there building this?
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