40 man roster by myself : a birthday post

(sorry, but those who clicked wishing for a contest will be disappointed : this post is all about me)

In a few days, I hit a major personal milestone that happens to most of us : I turn forty. I figured I might as well write something now, as I have a party to plan for this week-end and some binders to put away before everybody comes to tell me how great (and old) I am.

Speaking of old, I finally decided to tackle something I've been wanted to do for a long time : put all my 93 UD in a binder, leaving empty spaces for the cards I'm missing. So I went to get the cards in the boxes I'd put them into, and was mildly happy to see that some had stuck together.

This is just a sample, I'd say about 50 cards are concerned. Ah well, it's one of the (many) downfalls of collecting cards from the 90s and of not being careful as to how I store them. I'll check my duplicates to find replacements, but I doubt there will be any, as those were my stacks of newly added 93s.

I suppose you've all been there, but people around me have started wondering what to get me for my birthday. And trust me, it's difficult enough as it is to find something for someone whose hobby is so particular, but imagine doing this AND being French. My friends have no idea what cards are, and baseball even less. And even if they did, they wouldn't know who my favorite player is (Griffey Jr). They know about the Blue Jays though, so that's a start. But it's close to impossible to surprise me with the perfect gift. My girlfriend earlier today told me that she was officially lost. That she asked my best friends, but they are clueless. Their thing is basketball, not baseball, and I've grown bored of basketball for 20 years. So I told her the perfect gift would be something signed by Griffey (and I hate giving out clues, the whole idea behind a gift is for the others to figure it out, I don't need them to do the equivalent of giving me money for something they'd just buy for me out of a list). Of course, she has no idea who that is. And then I have to explain the whole "fake signatures" part, to make sure there's a COA, and even with that, you aren't sure it's real, so buy from someone with good rep. Or a signed card. But not on a sticker. And not in a Reds uniform. How can I expect her to understand anything to the business ? When you add that she should have the card sent to my COMC address and not to France, to avoid paying $20 S&H for a single card...I might as well find it myself.

Same thing for jerseys. Official, Replica, stitched, colors etc. Too many variations.

Of course, it'd be cool to find a nice signed 8x10, or something from Topps vault or a signed helmet by Bo Jackson, but this will never happen unless I make the purchase myself. And it's fine like that, I'm the only one to blame.

I just hope nobody buys me any ties. I'd have to ask them to leave their BBQ'd hamburger and the party on the spot.