The Box

It hasn't been a big secret around here that new baseball cards have bored the crap out of me this year. Just haven't been interested at all except for a little Archives frenzy that overtook me for about a month. This is really strange too because I like most of the 2012 designs. The flagship "Hindenburg" design is very attractive and quite fitting for Topps. Allen & Ginter has a snazzy Art Deco feel to it. Heritage ganks the 1963 design which was always one of my favorites. The problem is that they're the same old sets they've been for years, except now all their flaws have been magnified and exacerbated. Ginter still has truckloads of mini inserts and parallels, and now there are MORE of them and the subjects are kinda lame. Heritage is still hard to complete but now there's dozens of SSPs and variations thrown in the mix. And Topps? Well, shit. You can't even COMPLETE that set through ripping packs thanks to Brycie Har Har, so what's the point? Inserts? Topps recycled all of those from the 2001 set. May as well just buy a factory set a couple years down the road if you want that set*.

So this year, many trips to the card aisle ended up with me just shaking my head and walking away empty handed. One problem with that: when I created this blog I named myself Cardboard Junkie for a reason. This is not a fun childhood hobby for me, this is a full blown pathological obsession. I gotta collect something or I get itchy. I really need an intervention, but until that happens I'm stuck with my craziness.

Ponies have helped. Not gonna lie, you're gonna see more ponies here and soon. I'm running out of pony cards to collect though. Vintage has also gotten me through some rough spells but my Vintage show hasn't been her since May and my work schedule is hindering my attendance at other shows and my LCS. But even though I don't have a junkie fix, The Sickness still has a grip on me and when that happens I find... alternate means of getting my cardboard high.

Right down the street from me is a flea market. It's maybe a 20 minute walk if you don't mind walking in ditches or dodging pick-em-up trucks because Georgia doesn't believe in sidewalks. This used to be my #1 source for feeding my addiction. There were at least three or four guys selling cards there every week including one with every new product you could imagine and one with every vintage card you could think of. The county unsuccessfully tried to run 'em out of business a few years ago so they could build a strip mall but they only managed to run off half of the sellers including my card connection. There's still a guy selling cards there, but it's mostly junk wax that he has priced at turn of the century levels because he doesn't know any better. I can find a couple cards here and there I need if I look but lately I just don't have the urge to look.

On the other side of the market though is a comic and toy seller. I like comics. I like toys. I checked out the place once and discovered they had unopened non-sports wax. Including a box of my favorite non-sports set ever. Sooooo I bought a non-sports box. And maybe a couple more. And perhaps the shopkeep started recognizing me as that dude with the hobo beard who keeps buying cards. And there's the *tinest* chance that I was offered a deal on some non-sports stuff. And maybe I took it.

What you see here is a 5000-count box full of near sets of non-sports cards. about 25 or 30 of 'em. Instant non-sports collection basically. Plus on top is a wax bos of Wacko-Saurs stickers that was thrown in because I mentioned I liked the 'dinosaur cards'. All that for the price of a blaster.

Along with the near sets was a big pile of random junk that didn't fit in with anything else. This pile by itself is probably worth the money spent. For one thing, it's going to fuel this blog for at least the next couple of months while I get everything else sorted out. I hope you guys like non-sports cards because now that the new stuff bores me to tears you're going to be seeing quite a bit of it here. Along with the occasional baseball card older than me and some tiny horses thrown in here and there for variety. Don't count on any '13 products though. Unlike this year when I was sucked in by Archives and Ginter in 2013 I might really be out for good this time.

*B-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-but Bryce Harper's one and only truly rookie card! You have to rip open packs! Bullshit. Card #661 is card #661. I'll let my grandkids curse me for not having the 'good' one.