MMMB:Mail Day's Galore To Kick Off The New Year!

 

2020 has officially ended, what does that mean for this blog, some changes.

As you have already seen, I changed the face of this blog, name, added some new segments and updated a Top 15 Want List on the left side. I feel this is the best this blog has looked in years and plan to keep it this way. I do hope that you all like it as much as I do.

Today's post is a new segment that I am using to recap all of my mail days instead of doing a few cards at a time per day. It's called Monday Morning Mail Bag or in short, MMMB.

First up, my winnings from The View From The Third Floor who held some Halloween giveaways and I have been slacking in posting of my wonderful prize winning.

My PWE was loaded full of big names of the NFL, most of which I use in my by-player boxes I sort out.

These cards will pad those collections nicely. And no, these aren't the real cards, they are reprints but great looking reprints.

Thanks goes out to The View From The Third Floor for the giveaway and great mail day!

Up next, I have been doing so many PWE trades that I ate through a book+ of stamps for on Twitter.

This trade mail day was from Matt's Cards on Twitter. Great guy and easy to trade with. My favorite card was this Harry Carson from this trade. Cool design and relic.  I didn't have memorabilia card of him before so this is all new to me!

Thanks for the trade Matt's Cards!

My next trade had a bonus surprise card in it.

 

First up a Danny Dimes rookie year card I didn't have along with a Ximines rookie and Nate Solder Xtra points parallel.

Followed by an Aaron Judge parallel from Stadium Club

Miguel Andujar who I wished had more opportunities with the Yanks.

And Garrett Cooper. Not a name I am familiar with, but I also don't watch baseball as much as I used to either.

The surprise of the package was this Ozzie Newsome relic that will tie in really well with the autograph of him I landed in a Mega Box of Prestige I opened. I have been trying to tie together a relic and autograph of each Hall Of Famer autograph I have. It's a fun challenge. Some I only have the relic for so far such as Tom Brady who may be the most elusive autograph I need and most likely will never land.

 

Big thanks for the surprise @33CardShop and hope we can trade again!

The final card, an Evan Engram rookie auto "patch" I landed from @anthonyscards

I really like the look of these, well other than the small patch circle. I think a square would have looked better. But overall, solid design and I made sure not to drop it. Sorry, Evan that was a low blow for a Pro Bowl player. (once again I will never get how he made it)

Thanks goes out to @anthonyscards for the trade.

Hope everyone enjoyed this weeks mail day recap, more to come next Monday!

The Origins Of A Cardboard Addict: Closing Time Part 3

Closing time
Time for you to go back to the places you will be from. 

It was 2001-2002. I had been dating the girl for a couple of years now.

 

My card collecting days were gone and now I was into rap music, girly music (you know, Britney Spears etc), WWE (used to watch all of the TV events with her brother) and NASCAR (her father was into racing big time so I watched every race and went to a few also) . Not something I had ever pictured myself getting into. 

I was a changed person, except on the inside. I still felt something wasn't right.

And boy was I right. The relationship started to hit a few bumps in the road after I had graduated from high school and began a full time job working in a meat department. I think she began losing interest in me despite everything I had given up for her. I had given up everything I knew and changed into what she turned me into. I was cooking her family meals, carrying her books around at school (she was really smart so she had lots of books from big classes) and pretty much everything you would consider a maid or butler to do, I was doing.

In February of 2002, it finally came to an end. The relationship was over. And even though I didn't take it easily, I sobbed for a few weeks, I got over it with time. I think my favorite part was when I went out and spent my entire paycheck a week later just to despise her and used it all on cards. To be honest, it was sort of a relief after the initial break up like I could get my life back together again. Question was, was it too late.

So gather up your jackets, and move it to the exits
I hope you have found a
Friend.

I  moved out and back home with my parents. I went around and tried to find the friends I once had and tried to make amends with each one. Things seemed to had finally turned back to some normalcy. I got back into card collecting, but this time without my father who had sold all of his off after I moved out and no longer collected. He did watch me do so from afar though. I gained back at least one of my good friends and made some others at work.

Most importantly of all, I was happy again. I felt I left a lot of that behind once I got with that girl.

I also began reading a Bible that my boss at work had given me as I was in the search for answers in places I never looked before. Work also changed my life as a month later after my breakup, I met another girl. I know it sounds crazy, after all that I had been through for those two years, but this was different and when you just know, you know. A girl who forever changed my life in a good way. She became my best friend and still is today, 17 years later. This, this was the girl I needed to had met in the first place. 

One who loves me for me. One who lets me do this blogging and card collecting and even Madden. Let's me be my geeky self. One I didn't have to change for or let anything go for. The One.

It's like find that 1/1 in card collecting. Once you see that pop up on eBay, you have to grab it or you may never see it again. So glad that I did.

So there was my story of my dark age of collecting. Two years I missed out on. Including a big year in 2000 when I should have been owning some Tom Brady rookies instead of being a slave. However, 2002 was the new 1995 for me as I began picking up steam with my soon to be wife by my side and here I am today collecting more than ever.

Closing time
Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end. 

And speaking of ends, this marks the end of the two year long storytelling adventure of my collecting origins. The series has hit its finale which is why I called this three-part series Closing Time.

****Closing Time was a great song released by Semisonic in the 98-99. If you haven't heard it, go grab their CD or check out the music video on YouTube. *****

New Years Eve Blog-Athon

As we close in on another New Year, I am a little backed up on drafts on here. I don't want to really carry yesterday's news over to a New Year so I am planning a blog-athon to end what has been a really rough year for me personally. I can't wait til Midnight comes when 2019 opens up hopefully a good year. I haven't had one of those in awhile for health reasons at least.

So what is a blog-athon you may ask. Well, I am publishing every draft I have today and hopefully will have fresh material to start out the New Year. They may be published an hour apart. Could be two hours apart. But, I want to make sure I get all of my older posts out there. There will be some great mail days to view so make sure you follow along all day.

I would also suggest you following along all day as I have three PWE prizes with an autograph card in each and other fun cards that I will be giving away to those that comment on the posts and RT them on Twitter. With three prizes, there will be three random winners. I packed the envelopes ahead of time so I will hand them out in the order I numbered them to the winners I choose in order.

As with all of my contests, winners are chosen at RANDOM. You must have a U.S. address to participate. Sorry to my northern friends and ones over the seas who read the blog.

As for New Years eve itself, I wish you all the best. Please be safe and make smart decisions along the way. Also, I wish you all the best in 2019 and hope you enjoy this blog-athon!

--Matt