I forget which blogs I saw it on, but over the summer someone had floated the idea of showing off your card room and/or man cave. I thought that was an awesome idea. Like “Cribs”, only super nerdy.
So, I welcome you into my man cave and game room. Let me give you the tour…
It’s been one of those summers. One crazy thing after another, big projects at work, big projects at home, lots of money spent on things other than small rectangles of cardboard. At one point we had a vacation or, as it’s more commonly referred to by fathers, “that time when I drove 12 hours and had to listen to kids music the whole way”. I joke. We did have a vacation, and I did do a lot of driving, but it was a good trip.
So, per usual, this weekend we made a shopping trip to Target and per usual I’m standing in the card isle trying to find something worth buying. My Target’s card isle is usually pathetic, but this weekend they had two lonely blasters of Diamond Kings. I love Diamond Kings, I think they’re a brilliant merger of art and baseball, but $20 is a lot (for us) and I already have most of the Sox team set. I buy it anyways, because I’m weak, but we have other errands to run and I set it aside to open later. When I finally do open it, I’m suddenly glad I bought it. This was waiting for me in the first pack…
To be honest, I had the remaining stack of cards from the card show (back in freakin’ February) sitting on my desk to be scanned until I moved them in an ill-fated attempt to “clean”. Never again. Organized chaos is my go-to from now on. Not that anyone was waiting with baited breath to see what pitiful collection of Red Sox and Astros cards I picked up two months ago, but I scanned them anyway. Organized, no. Completionist, yes.
I figured I’d start off with the card so that it’s clearer what I was actually talking about. I purchased this card back in November, I think. I didn’t know anything about it, what it was from, or how rare it was. It doesn’t have any numbers on it, or any details about the product.
I found it on ebay by chance. One of my saved searches is something generic like “Red Sox Patch”. The seller only listed it as “Rusney Castillo Pyramid Patch”, or something similar. It was the “Pyramid” that peaked my interest. The scan doesn’t really do it justice. In hand, in the light, this thing is crazy looking…
The whole thing is trippy and holographic.
Believe it or not, I won the card for about $4. Since it’s now in my collection, I figured I’d better find out what it actually was. I started digging and found a post by Panini about a month before than National Convention talking about their VIP party and that the packs they were giving away were going to have all kinds of crazy stuff in them, including something called a “Pyramid Refractor”. That was a start, but these certainly don’t look like pyramids, so I kept looking.
Next was a checklist on Cardboard Connection. It said…
“Rookie Memorabilia” and included Pyramids. Castillo was on the list. Getting closer. I was still a little worried that it wasn’t numbered.
With “rookie memorabilia” and “pyramid” added to the mix, I tracked down a gallery post on Panini’s site about their VIP party “gold packs”.
“Panini America Offers Must-See Peek Inside the 2015 National VIP Party Gold Packs”
I was let down, there wasn’t any photos of anything that looked like my card. I thought I had it. They talked about their gold packs, mentioned the refractors, but mostly showed off football cards that were completely different.
Then I noticed the “related posts” at the bottom, and saw this…
“On the Button: Panini America Examines the Prime Memorabilia of the 2015 National”
Finally! About half way through, I spotted this…
There it was, or, at least one of it’s /10 brethren. I checked the photos in that gallery and most aren’t numbered, but according to Panini, and their various blog posts, what I have is a…
“2015 National Convention, Panini VIP Party, Gold Pack Exclusive, Rookie Memorabilia, Rusney Castillo Pyramid Refractor Patch” of which, only 10 were made.
That was a mouthful.
I never really thought it would be from some exclusive VIP party pack. I’m pretty happy it’s /10, even though it doesn’t say it, but I’m just happy to have it in my collection, whatever the heck it’s actually called.
I swear yesterday was the 4th of July. I don’t remember most of August and I have no clue what happened to September. Life. Life happened. My kid started school, my job ramped up 400%, a guy at work quit, my buddy needed personal intervention-style help, my church asked me to be a deacon, it was completely nuts.
At work I went from having tiny projects here and there to two massive projects running through the end of the year. They require constant attention and are completely stressing me out. Added to that, one of the other guys quit and now those of us that remain will be pulling double duties until he can be replaced, if he’s replaced.
At home, we were surprised by some bills that we thought we had covered and that zapped up pretty much all of our income last month. So much so that even though one of my best friends from college is getting married next week, I couldn’t afford a plane ticket. I’m pretty ticked off about that one. I have no one to blame but myself.
At church, they nominated me to be a deacon, which was both an honor and a scary proposition all rolled into one. I declined, but only because I felt like I could be more help in other areas at church, and volunteered for the “IT Ministry”. I need to make t-shirts with that on it, lol.
I think, in the past 30 days, I’ve looked at baseball cards or video games a grand total of 3 times. I think I sorted the contents of a blaster, and played Rocket League for about an hour. That’s it. That’s how insanely busy it’s been around here.
October better calm the heck down, or I’m going to be nuts by the holidays.
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