Busy, Busy, Busy

I know I'm not alone here, but it's been a struggle to find time for my hobby the past few weeks.  The holiday season is typically busy enough, and when you add to that a work promotion that has made my already hectic and stressful job even worse, some health issues for me (I'm fine now) and my dog (so is he), and about a dozen other things I won't get into here, it's just been tough.  I've even taken on a new hobby recently which I may or may not talk about here at some point.  I realize it makes no sense to do so given everything I just described above, but it happened.

Anyway, I don't say this to complain, but more to explain why there's been a bit less activity here, and why it's taken me an excessive amount of time to respond to some of your emails (weeks in some cases, yikes).  I think I've gotten back to just about everyone I needed to at this point, and I've even got a few minutes left over for a post!

Just a few minutes though, so how about a pair of recent hockey additions that reached my mailbox this past week?

Yes, they're buybacks.  Are you surprised?  Probably not.  Both are 20th Anniversary Buybacks from Upper Deck's inaugural hockey set that were included in their 2010-11 flagship release (the French version).  I've shown a few of these off before, in fact tonight's pair takes me up to a dozen in total now.

What I liked about this duo was that both cards feature HOFers, I won each for the opening bid of 99 cents, and they were from the same seller so I saved with combined shipping.  All in all it ended up being a solid deal considering these typically do fairly well on the secondary market.

Gotta show the backs, these were pretty much mind-blowing in 1990 and in fact they're still a notch above most of what's being released today in my humble opinion.

Joining the great Denis Savard is defenseman Larry Murphy.  While I'd gladly accept just about any card from this buyback set if the price is right, and certainly anyone who's enshrined in the HOF, I was particularly drawn to this one because of those fantastic Minnesota North Stars sweaters.  If I were in charge of the NHL I'd rename the Wild to the North Stars and make the Dallas Stars pick a new name.

Another awesome back here.

The older I get, and the less time I seem to have for collecting, the more I find that I'm becoming selective in my purchases.  When I got back into the hobby over a decade ago I considered myself a set collector, but I wouldn't say so anymore (with a couple of exceptions).  Then I had a long phase were I thought I'd collect as many Boston Red Sox and Hartford Whalers cards as I could get my hands on, but I think I'm tiring of that as well.

These days I'm gravitating towards being more selective and purchasing fewer cards that are more significant or valuable to me.  I think after being at it for so long I'm just a bit burned out and overwhelmed by the endless number of cards I've accumulated over the last ten years.  I've already begun the condensing process, and have mailed out hundreds of cards in the past few weeks.

I plan to continue that process in 2018.  I'm honestly hoping, and legitimately expecting, to cut my collection size in half by the end of next year.  Don't worry though, I'm still enjoying the hobby, and I have no plans to step away from the blog any time soon.  Hell, I have so many awesome cards lying around here that I haven't had the time to post about yet that I could stop picking up anything new today and probably have material for the next ten years.

Anyway, thank you for taking a few minutes of your day to read my ramblings.  It truly does mean a lot to me.  For now though, I'm just about out of time.

Busy, busy, busy...