Monday, September 7, 2020

Short story (okay 2 separate stories) & some nice cards

On Saturday September 5th, 2020 I journeyed outside to do something that I had not done in 8 months. Yes this was ONLY partially due to COVID-19, not totally. I went to a card show, the one held in Jacksonville, FL the first Saturday of every month. They resumed card shows back on July 4th after shutting down in April or May. They were only down for 2 or 3 months, but I had decided on January 16, 2020 to shut it down. YES January 16th! Not because of Covid, but because there were no "new cards" and really wouldn't be for several months. I wanted to wait until there would be dime boxes chocked full of the unwanted or unsold 2020 cards. I went to the Jax show the first week of Jan. Didn't like the assortment (keep in mind it is a 2 1/2 hour ride each way for me to go there). I told the guys/vendors back then I wouldn't be back for some time. The following week I went to the card show in The Villages back home (3 hour ride each way). That one totally sucked, and I knew then that I wouldn't be doing any more shows for awhile. I had been paying attention to the strange "new" sickness rampaging through China. It started way back in October of 2019. I had been following online stuff since November last year, so combine that with the disappointment at card shows. I was done. I shut my self down, stayed in the house other than Walmart for groceries. 2 Weeks later the country started shutting down. I cut back my trips for groceries from 3x per month to 1. We stayed safe. I have to be extra careful with my Uncle. I will always look beyond myself and no matter what comes in the future I will be socially distancing.

Anyways, ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN and all of the other crappy News channels we (without cable) we're forced to watch can kiss my ass. Now that I have cable and super fast (100G +) I can research stuff and do oh yeah...and think for myself. I have done this in the recent weeks (the research stuff).

Without having uncontrolled HBP (and other serious heart conditions), Diabetes combined with obesity, immunity problems, or Respiratory issues, the numbers are completely different. Only a tad over 6K people in the entire country died of purely Covid without any of the above health issues. Granted, I know in this country we have some unhealthy people. I do not have those, nor does my Uncle (of course we both could lose 15 lbs). Turns out even as bad as the 188K+ we lost, the odds of getting it  and dying are almost nil compared to the projected 60% of the population that was predicted would get it and the 2 million that would have died without that initial shutdown. My guess is that they actually did get the 60%, they just didn't know they had because they didn't get sick. This comes from where I am living where the 60% of population was pretty damn close. The majority of the deaths here were in nursing homes (still is), or brought in from other cities. Anyways this isn't about that. It is really about the next story.


I escaped my prison. I felt safe because I analyzed the data (the real data) and compared it to my own personal knowledge. Keep in mind my profession was knowing the complete medical history (and the finances) of my clients which are numbered in the thousands. Most of them actually having either HBP or Diabetes, and many with both. Throw in the lung problems which outside of allergies was minimal. 2300 people (my clients that were 70+ years old). I lost 3 total this year one was from cancer strictly and we knew that was coming. 2 ....just two lost to Covid because of there underlying health. One of them actually had cancer too and wasn't going to be here more than another week or two. His whole family got it, and he couldn't battle it like the others (he was a severe diabetic as was his wife, but she pulled through without any issues at all). I still have to reach out to about a dozen more, but that is it. I say all of this not to encourage people to revolt in the shut down (but it is time for the whole country to open), no I say this because we don't have to be scared to LIVE our life, just careful. Let's get back to doing the things we miss doing, just cautiously and without fear LIKE GOING TO A CARD SHOW NOW THAT THERE ARE CARDS TO BE HAD.

I did mention that there would be some cards. Well, tons (okay twentyish) of new vendors at this show. Most of them apparently started at this show back in Feb. They were all older folks too (60's & 70's).

The place was packed. I knew the first place to go was my buddy Fred, my favorite card dealer on the planet. He kept in touch with me every single month going back to last year when I quit going because of the ASS-HOLE dealer there). I HAD TOLD HIM, I WAS THINKING OF COMING. He was prepared. I got there, and right away, he handed me 3 shoebox (1600 ct) boxes of cards said free. They were all 2020 base cards for the most part. Bowman, Bowman Prospects, Bowman Chrome, Topps ser 1, Heritage, Gypsy Queen.  Wow, I won't have to dig through dime boxes. Not that I really needed many of those, but the stars were all there. I will say I still need  a 2020 Bowman Chrome Prospects Pache (BCP 5). There were no Robert Lewis cards, but pretty much everyone else.

This was a GREAT start to a card show. After Fred gave me those boxes, I knew I needed to buy some stuff from him. I grabbed up 220 higher end cards. He gave me a price of $90.00. I looked at him funny, he repeated $90.00. If you count the "free" cards that comes out to 1.8 cents a piece. If you exclude the free cards then the cards I will be showing you tonight and tomorrow would be .40 each.  Let's get started. The players included today and tomorrow are as follows:

Acuna, Judge, Lux, Alonso, Vlad Jr, Devers, Alvarez, Torres, Trout, Ohtani, Sanchez, Jeter, Tatis Jr,
Tebow. There were a few others that I just grabbed a single here or there, and didn't scan them.






I really didn't need the Acuna's other than the last 5 cards.











Yes, I knowingly grabbed dupes, and like Acuna, I did not need many of these and I knew it.
As for the Kernels card....I have no idea what it is. It is glossy, but not copyright information as you see on the card back (the purple above).






Same goes for Shonei.








This is a good stopping point for tonight. I'll show the rest tomorrow night.

See ya. Go do something if you can. I know I am going to get a haircut in the coming week, whoo hoo. Taking my life back.






19 comments:

  1. Wish I had a show to go to. Living in New York, things are strict. I don't mind, but there's less to do because stuff like card shows aren't happening. Not that there's much of that near me anyway.

    Glad you're getting out more. I am, too. Even doing some traveling (in state).

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hey, we have too. It's a 99.5% chance of NOT getting dead from Covid. The odds of getting hit while jaywalking is way above that. (even my humor is back). I would be absolutely nuts in NY. We are totally opened, nothing closed not even the bars. Then again we were only shut down for 6 weeks to begin with, so no wonder Lowndes County GA made the bad list in July (June numbers). But the mortality was extremely low. Most of the rise in cases came from the protests according to the tracing. Went from 201 cases on June 1 to 3200+ on July 1 without changing the mortality rate, so. I'm done with the scare tactics. I will wear a mask when around others, cuz I ain't risking bringing something home.....kind of like wearing a rubber. LOL.

      Delete
  2. Ooo, you're gonna ruffle some feathers with this one, John! I, on the other hand, found it to be rather refreshing :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I figured it would be 50/50. While people say that isn't good....I think it 50/50 is perfect.

      Delete
  3. I think the Kernels Trout is a Rookies App card. If you're not familiar with the Rookies App, they basically help you design your own customs (using a few available templates) and order prints.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Gavin.. I had no clue. Just new it was different.

      Delete
  4. So you're saying that you're going to go to a card show, and if it kills people, well, hey, they probably weren't in completely perfect health anyway? That's pretty sick.

    I want to go to a card show, too. But you know what I want to do more than that? NOT KILL PEOPLE. There are people who HAVE to go out, but no one HAS to go card shopping.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Dude, I live in a town where everything is open, nothing is closed, hasn't been since May. People are not dying here (other than those in nursing homes and those are minimal maybe 1 or two a month).

      Delete
    2. Just saying I'd like to keep it that way.

      Delete
  5. You be you buddy. The only card show in my area (that I know about) was scheduled for October, but cancelled two weeks ago. I wasn't gonna go though. They've rescheduled it for January. We'll see if I'm ready to climb out of my shell by then. If not... I'll just live vicariously through all of the bloggers who are attending card shows right now.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Buddy if you need some 2020 cards. I got those free boxes and you are more than welcome to them.

      Delete
  6. Kudos for looking at the data and making a decision that seems right for you. You still know to wear a mask to protect your loved ones and that's really all you can do. If you're comfortable around folks that's great. I wound up at my LCS on National Baseball Card day and even though everyone wore masks I was a little paranoid with all the people there. Thanks for the images...pretty jealous of 3 boxes of free 2020 cards!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Place was crowded, and I most certainly tried to be socially distanced. I was probably spending more time listening to hear if anyone was coughing (I heard no one BTW).

      Delete
  7. Just remember we still know next to nothing about this disease. Kids were supposed to handle it just fine, then some otherwise-healthy kids got real sick of a COVID-related disease here in NY. And no-one knows the long term effects of having had it. There's already some research on people in Europe who had it with minimal effect and months later are showing neurological issues . . .

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes on both counts, but still they are extremely rare.

      Delete
  8. All those cards are amazing! I'm in the mood for a card show now, going to see if there are any this month in the area.

    ReplyDelete
  9. It's gonna be a while before I go to another show -- I'm not even sure if any have opened back up in my area, and frankly I don't really care. Pandemic is still way too strong to risk going to a room packed with dudes, many of whom aren't exactly hygienic to begin with. I personally don't think we're close to the "live your life" phase yet, and I'm hoping the second wave isn't as bad as I imagine it's gonna be in my head.

    ReplyDelete
  10. I'm convinced that the ability to research data and understand how different variables affect it is a skill set that will become absolutely necessary for future generations. I'm guilty as much as anyone on taking the short summaries others have provided and putting too much faith in their research, but at least I'll try to verify things on my own as well. Good on you for taking the time.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Had to, I'm not going to live in a cocoon if I don't have to. And I don't plan on it anymore. I'm not one with severe underlying health problems (my back doesn't count). The data is pretty clear if you look it up for yourself (and the data sources as well). The crap on TV is always biased one way or the other.

      Delete