Boy it's been a rough and challenging week on the work/professional front. Glad I have cards, this blog, this hobby and this great community to keep me engaged in something I enjoy. I've been busy on the card front, here are some recent updates...
I've been really busy with creating content for my new YouTube channel. As I said before, I have no intention whatsoever of abandoning this blog after more than a dozen years running. That being said, I am really enjoying a fresh way to generate hobby content. It's certainly a lot less time consuming to turn on a camera and talk for a few minutes than to scan cards and type up a post, and some cards just plain look better on video. Each outlet has its strengths and weaknesses.
If you have a few minutes to stop by, maybe you'll enjoy some of the videos. Maybe you won't and that's okay too, but I do keep them to less than 10 minutes in length so I won't waste too much of your valuable time! Anyway, in my latest video I showed off the absolutely awesome Ovechkin card above, which is now my second favorite card of The Great 8!
Here's one more Ovi while we're at it. Recently I stumbled upon a seller who had no less than 10 of these retro box bottom cards from 2008-09 O-Pee-Chee for sale for 25 cents each. I've always loved the retro parallels this year, and completed the entire 600-card set in retro parallel format, but I didn't have any of these box bottom cards. I bought all ten copies of Ovechkin for $2.50!
Getting excited for baseball season, and I showed a few nice Rafael Devers pickups on my YouTube channel earlier in the week. Here's one that I did not show though, a "Green Festive" parallel from the 2018 Bowman Holiday set. I thought it was kind of a cool oddball rookie of Raffy, with the whole holiday sweater vibe in the background, and it's numbered to /99 as well.
(Yes this is an official Fuji RC, and no it's not for sale!)
Lastly, and most importantly, I wanted to give a huge shout-out to Mark, aka San Jose Fuji! He announced yesterday that he'll be stepping back and taking a break from operating his blog for a bit due to fatigue and burnout, which is certainly understandable. I will certainly miss his enthusiasm for our hobby and his awesome weekly recap posts that have turned me onto many awesome cards and many other great blogs as well.
I think you will all agree with me that Fuji has absolutely been one of THE most supportive people out there when it comes to reading all of our blogs and providing insightful comments over the years. In fact, I'd wager he's left more comments on card-related blogs than anyone else in history?!?! Prove me wrong!
In any event, I am so appreciative of everything that Mark does for our hobby that I wanted to specifically thank him here. Fuji, I hope you enjoy your well-deserved break, get your collection organized and enjoy some other aspects of our hobby, and I guarantee you we will all be here to resume reading your fantastic content if/when you ever decide it's time to return! THANK YOU, you are truly a "Shoebox Legend" in my book!
To everyone else, thanks as always for stopping by, and be safe out there!