Black Friday & Cyber Monday Blahs...WTF Is Wrong With Me?

The past three years I could not wait for the 6 am Black Friday deals on Blowoutcards and Dave & Adam's sites.  This year I was excited to see COMC have a Black Friday sale.  I had money stowed away and saved up yet again this year but just as quick as Blowoutcards sells out of the biggest discounted boxes my wife lost a good chunk she saved for our kids when she and two daughters were robbed the night before Thanksgiving they were going to use on Black Friday sales.  So of course my money I had saved for Black Friday card deals was now going to be moved into getting the kids their items on Black Friday. 

As a collector always looking for great deals it hurts to see all the great deals and to just "window shop" on my computer.  It has been a long two weeks since the robbery, and I'm happy every one is okay in my family, but I'm still in a baseball card "ba hum bug" mood.  My wife even sensed I was having card board withdrawals so she got me this months Beckett from the grocery store yesterday.  I opened up and within the first 10 pages there are several "Black Friday"ads, so it just made me even more depressed about missing out on this years Black Friday. 

I needed a shot in the arm this week and a friend of my son gave this card to me after I came to visit his class on Veteran's Day, 2004 Upper Deck First Pitch Adam Dunn. This card is epic to me...

 

As being one of the first groups inside Iraq in March 2003, this 2004 Adam Dunn card has eluded me for almost a decade.  Then I think of this 10 year old boy who seen this card in his dad's collection and thought of giving this card to me because of the Iraqi Freedom sign.  To you all this card may only been seen in dime boxes, to me and this little boy who gave this to me, it meant much more!  This one common card got me get over my "greed" of missing out on a few cards and made remember those years I missed Black Friday's because I was in Iraq fighting.  I seemed to have lost my ways, and been blinded by these "Sale" ads.  I lost friends in my unit over the holidays in Iraq, and in everything that happened I was lucky to make it home.  I could have easily lost a family member in an armed robbery just hours before Thanksgiving, and I got lost in the greed of Black Friday. It is crazy how quickly we forget that their are worse issues in the world.  In a world of hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, starvation, war, and myself lived for nearly three years going to the bathroom in holes in a ground in Iraq, why did I let not saving a few bucks on cards depress me?  How does these little pieces of cardboard have that kind of hold on me, and how did I become a collector who valued what they have to being a collector who only wants more...more...more. 

In 2005 I lost everything non military and lived for nearly another year with nothing but my uniforms and weapon.

As I said before, the boy who gave me that card reminded me that I need to remember to be grateful for what I do have verses thinking of what I don't have.  I love to blog about baseball cards and my Colorado Rockies, but I also use this avenue as a way to help me keep my head on straight.  I created an image of what I am going to create to display in my card collection.  I am going to try to get this card autographed by Adam Dunn.  I sent Dunn a card two years ago, but never got it back.  I am going to try it again this spring, I would love to have this card autographed because of the power the image has on me.  Then the reminder that these items are just cardboard, and not lose that thought.  I think it would be cool to have it matted, have the engravings, awards, with this card in a frame.  I like to talk about my cards I get, I like to write about what I don't like in collecting, but I also love to write about how collecting cards personally affects me.  We all should have something in life we can look at to help us get back to thinking realistic and not greedy.  I thank you for reading!  

Sample of what I am making to hang in my man cave (Card room)