At Long Last My Blog Has Been Validated

Achievement Unlocked!

I started this blog six years ago next month with a not-so-subtle goal to acquire more Cardinals cards with less effort and cash than it would take to actually go find places that sold cards and purchase the cards that I really wanted. At least, I think that's what I was trying to do. My second post laid out the mission explicitly and I sat back in my E-Z chair waiting for the good times to roll in.

For six years. Almost.

In all honesty, when someone very dear to me posed the question to me tonight "why didn't you just BUY [this card] on the the internet", it was easy to laugh it off because I've known why I'm doing things this way all along. This blog thing is the about the only way that I can make collecting cards interesting to me for a sustainable period. I've never liked to buy singles, even though I occasionally splurge at card shows or when I'm feeling bored. I like the random encounter, like a good classic 8-bit Japanese RPG. I like to buy packs and get something I really feel like I wanted, even though the financial end of things doesn't make sense. And I like getting things in my mailbox and seeing cards that I was interested in for the first time, in my hands. I could buy these things out of a catalog or off of an endless webpage of scrolling text, but I prefer things this way. (I also like comments. I don't know why.)

For the record, there's still the 1991 Bowman Jaime Moyer card out there to collect (and it probably has a rare Tiffany cousin). Along with the 1991 O-Pee-Chee "Now With Cardinals (But Not Actually In Uniform)" card, this is pretty much it for the Moyer section of my Cardinals binders.

Tony L of Off Hiatus Baseball Cards is the generous fellow who finally cracked the Jamie Moyer case, and he was also kind enough to send along Vince Coleman's 1985 Fleer Update rookie card -- another Top 10 Need. I love 1985 Fleer.

It's almost stunning that someone could send me as many as three cards from 1985 to 1991 that I didn't own, but this actually happened. I was largely unaware that the Topps glossy inserts continued into 1991 for some reason, even though I purchased a ton of cards that year. The glossy Rookies were traditionally inserted into jumbo packs, but I don't remember ever seeing jumbos or rack packs in my neck of the woods back then. That must be why my eyes bug out whenever I see the Topps 40th Anniversary logo on one of these glossy inserts. If there are any more Cardinals in this set or the corresponding glossy All-Star set, I need 'em. And if they continued to make these cards past 1991, my head is really going to explode!