I've got a story to tell.

 I actually have two culminating at the The Villages card show last month. Technically, one started when I returned from Georgia and unpacked the tubs with my binders in them. After deciding the financially wise thing to do was convert my garage, I began unpacking everything that I could without making a further mess in the garage. It was literally jammed packed to inches of the door ceiling high with no path to get around. I had already ordered twelve 6' tall bookcases which I would have needed no matter where I put my cards. My original plan (going back years) was to place the bookcases in the two (at the time) spare bedrooms and in my living room. No can do that anymore. At least for now, I know that at some point my daughter and grandson will find a place of their own (hopefully not for awhile). I kind of like the family life that exists, and even though we all have had to make adjustments (ongoing of course) I like it and want it to last for as long as possible. 

The garage, the bookcases, and land clearing. You may wonder what does land clearing have to do with my baseball cards, and for good reason. I assure you it was a necessity. I'll explain, I cut all of the trees down in my back yard...dozens some large, some medium, and some small ones too. It isn't the first time I've done so. They just kept growing back after all I built this house in 2004. I made up my mind to to be done with them once and for all. The trees and stumps were removed on Jan. 18/19. But, the bigger problem and permanent solution is to get rid of the roots. That has been a terrible journey. I couldn't even get someone to come out for the "site-prep" work as it is called until the end of March. (I had a guy come over today to do an estimate). Why is the an issue? You see I need to have a shed/barn placed outback so that I can store things like mowers, tools, and other boxed items that are seldom used including some furniture too. They are taking up valuable space in the garage. The pool table doesn't help either, but over the years I found myself using it to sort cards, large sorts that is. I have a lot of that to do for sure now, so it will have to stay for a bit longer. 

Back to the bookcases. Four were in stock and have since been installed, the other eight cases are on backorder and no telling how long they will be. Meanwhile I unpacked the binders and just crammed them onto the 4 bookcases that arrived. I have two book cases in my bedroom that are full too, but need to be um.... re-organized at some point. For now they are fine. 

So I managed to get nearly all of the binders that are already made up with cards in them (still need to make up a hundred more) onto the shelves and on top and some still need to rest elsewhere. Yeah, that is busy work ahead there, but one I will certainly enjoy once I get to that. So, by now you have certainly be under the impression that this story is about my garage, but it isn't. Seriously, it isn't. 

No, this story is about two MISSING binders. After unloading all of the binders from the tubs I could not find my 1958 Topps (more on that at the end) nor could I find my complete NM 1975 Topps set, beautiful set. I also just happen to keep the mini's in that binder too. No where near complete on the mini's, but very proud the mostly NM base set. My stomach was upset, I was upset. Horrible feeling.  At the show there 75's calling out to me all over the place. I found this one seller that had a box of low grade with 375 cards in it. It was only $50.00 and included all of the cards above which were laying on top of the other cards in the 800 count box. There were some dupes too, but 375 different. I figured $50.00 was a good deal. So I bough them. It didn't set well with me that I was getting cards that I know I would need to upgrade, then I remembered that I have a huge hundreds maybe even a thousand 75' dupes and some of those are EX or better. I knew there wasn't a spare Yount or Brett, or did I? Maybe in the PC's so my mind was stuck on 75's which was replacing the other thing that was stuck on my mind  and I guess that was good. The other thing came first about an hour into the show, and that will be the "OTHER" story I tell tomorrow. 

I wandered the through the show ultimately to finish up where I started the guy who had the packs/boxed sets originally at 2 for a buck and I paid 3 for $1. Yeah, that guy you may remember that I also bought a handful of singles from him for $40.00 too. Anyways this story has dragged on now and you probably want it to end, so here it is wrapped up in a nutshell. The seller's name was Art Romano, he used to be an Upper Deck distributor back in the 90's and also carried some Fleer products like Flair. Not that that has anything to do with the story. He texted me yesterday, too to see if I wanted any 78's or 79's. I politely said no, I have thousands of those for sure. 

The nutshell: I bought the low grade 75's for $50.00, price good me still no happy. Art had a few binders of vintage with 68-76' all beautiful condition EX or better and I mean better like my old set. Now, there were no super stars in there, but the cards were sweet, so I made an offer on all three binders. He accepted, there were get this 375 different, and a couple dozen dupes. None would have to be upgraded. The stack once I pulled them from the binder was identical to the size of the other 75's I bought. I'm thinking fate was at play. Of course I didn't pay $50.00 for that lot, a whole lot more we are talking thousands of EX-NM vintage cards here. I won't say what I paid, I did overpay, but I wanted to put the 75' issue to rest as fast as possible, and this would do it. 

To end this story or saga by now: I was emptying a cardboard box the other day with empty card boxes in it, (200, 400, 800 ct). Low and behold my damn 75' binder was at the bottom. I am happy about that. Not happy that I spent hundreds that I didn't need too. So now I have a ton more of 75's which I already had plenty of very very nice dupes. The 1958 Topps binder was not there though. I remembered this isn't the first time I misplaced my 58 binder. After a quick blog search, looks like in January of 2022, I posted about it. One year nearly to the date I noticed again. It is still missing, my guess someone walked off with it back when I first noticed it.

If this story got your gut, just wait until tomorrow!

The winner last night was Jeremy.