On Not Being Famous and Avoiding Responsibility

Collecting is, if nothing else, a way to fill the time. Not the physical time of sorting or looking at whatever you collect, but the mental time of THINKING about collecting. I am they type of person who operates much better with a hobby... some very-important-nothingness that I can focus on, solve its problems, and create dumb little goals that get me through the more mundane parts of the day. Collecting is also a kind of fall-back, something to turn to when you have nothing else pressing for your time. Or when you have something pressing for your time that you would rather not deal with. 

I need to make a phone call to the ACA help line. Like, today. I gotta make this call. It's important. 

So how about a card post???????

I posted yesterday about the weight of possessing an Aaron Judge autograph. Thankfully, that's all over now. It will soon be on its way to Bo over at Baseball Cards Come to Life. Bo has a whole bunch of Topps base cards I need, like a lotta lotta base, and I'm glad to make the swap. I think I'll snap a picture of myself with the card before I mail it. So, in 2027, when Judge is first person to ever to elected to the Hall of Fame while still an active player, I can look at it and weep. 
 

On a binder hunt at Goodwill yesterday (I scored two), I also found a vending box of 1989 Topps. As that is a set I do not yet have, I picked it up. $6 was probably a bit steep, considering I could get a factory set at an LCS for the same amount. But what the hell? I pawed through it a bit, enough to notice that the collation is abysmal in these things. But I did pull this one out....

Not a big deal to most folk, but I distinctly recall pulling this card from the first pack I ever opened. 28 years ago!! My God. 

I've done a little eBaying lately. Given the incredible spike in base rookie card prices of late, there are a few rookies I am looking to get ahead of the game on, for eventual set-building purposes. The Clayton Kershaw RC from 08 Update, for example, is going for $80 or more, even ungraded. 

Given that scale, Joey Votto's RC, from the flagship 08 set, is perhaps the most criminally underpriced card in recent history. Votto is one of my favorite non-Brewers and, in my mind, as sure-fire a Hall of Famer as Kershaw. I picked this one up for $2.50 shipped. 

My all-time most liked tweet was tied this past week when I shared the Joe Torre TTM I got a good year and a half (at least) after sending it to him. Even as a titan of local media (ha!), I get the most mileage out of my card tweets. Here is the twee in question:

Did not expect to get this in the mail today... a return from about 18 months ago. pic.twitter.com/DvUrRIrApY

— Matthew J. Prigge (@mjpmke) July 10, 2017

It surpassed this tweet...

A self-portrait by @EricThames from 2010 Topps. Just in case he hasn't won your heart yet. pic.twitter.com/wejbPwj6hA

— Matthew J. Prigge (@mjpmke) April 18, 2017

... which I actually like better and, for record, was liked by both SI's Emma Span and Brewers super-fan Front Row Amy. 

Bragging about your tweets is pathetic, right? 

Back to that fatuous comment about me being a titan of local media. Twice in my life I have been recognized in public. The first time was actually on a first date (BOOM!). We were walking down the street and a woman came up and asked me if I was Matthew Prigge. "Yes." "Oh, I have your book." "Oh, well thank you for buying it" "No... I think I live in your old apartment. I got a package of books from some publishing company with your name on them. I was trying to find you on facebook. Come get them."

The other time was at Walgreen's. The guy at the register recognized my name and said, "Oh, you wrote a book, right?" "Yeah, that's me." "Yeah, I recognized it because I used to deliver the newspaper to your parent's house in Manitowoc (where I grew up). In fact, didn't you used to have that route?" "Uh... yeah, I did." "I'm pretty sure I took over that route from you... oh, and you gotta use the chip reader."

That's all I've got for now.