Happy New Year!

I think I will end 2011 with a reminder to myself as to why I stopped buying packs of cards. As much as I love the thrill of tearing open a sealed pack to reveal it's hidden treasures within, I proved to myself over and over that in the end I might as well just buy what I want.

Breaking myself of the wax ripping habit was hard. I had collected cards since 1978 and opening packs was the foundation of my collecting habit. By the time I graduated High School and joined the USN, I was still buying cards. The year was 1987 and the worst of times (the investor era) was soon to be upon us in full swing. Luckily, due to time constraints, storage issues and

such, I pretty much stopped buying cards then. From about 1988-1993, the only cards I opened came from my mom when I took leave and returned home. She'd buy me random card packs for birthdays and Christmas and I would open them when I returned home. I had all but been cured though. The thrill just wasn't there any longer. I had turned to muscle cars, music and drinking/partying to pass my free time. Cards just didn't thrill me anymore.

I got out of the Navy in 1993 and a friend of mine had reintroduced me to cards shortly before I left, but the game had changed. Cards were fancier, there were inserts and everything was just more exciting. I came back hard, buying just about everything there was. I took a liking to a young star named Frank Thomas and the rest is history. I was fresh out of the Navy, had some spending money and nothing to do. Recipe for disaster, if you ask me. So, after abusing myself endlessly from 1993 to roughly 2000, I finally figured out that I just didn't have good luck when it came to opening packs, at least not from the "resale" or "investment" standpoint. I'd still say my best pull ever was an UD Autograph/Jersey card of Duke Snider from one of their HOF issues. Great card as a Dodger fan, but not exactly a "high BV" card. Still, I was in it for the fun, not to sell. That doesn't help justify spending $75-100 per box of cards, only to find yourself with a small stack of cards and really nothing else to show for it. For that same $75-100, I could buy so much more of what I wanted, not continue to fill up 5K boxes with junk and be happier all around. So, I finally pulled the plug and stopped buying packs.

It's been a dozen or so years and I still open an occasional pack for Christmas or when I need to remind myself of just how stupid it is for me to buy packs. Once such occasion was tonight. I got 4-5 random packs of cards from my wife as a stocking stuffer (yeah, I got nothing worth mentioning) and so tonight, while helping my boys spend some of their Christmas money on Legos and Wii games at Target, I bought a few cheapie boxes and packs. All told, I spent around $35 and went home to see how I did. Below is the bounty...at least this isn't a daily whooping anymore! It's not like I expect to pull a Sandy Koufax autograph or something like that every time, but once in a while might have kept me going longer, that's for sure!