The Burden of Hospitality is too Great for Rolf

 I'm still downsizing. Yes, even after all that.

The stuff I wasn't thinking about parting with last year has been put on the chopping block.

Anyone who's traded with me and follows my blog probably knows this cycle. I pick up something I find neat, I blog about it, then a while later I no longer find it neat and it ends up in someone else's mail box against their will. Apologies to any of my trading partners who feel like they're getting sloppy seconds.

Still with me, future unknown

I've mentioned before on this blog that there are a lot of cards I have that I don't intend to keep forever. I'm merely a temporary owner giving them a home before they inevitably end up somewhere else.

With that in mind I am reminded of the saying that "what's going to be done eventually should be done immediately" as Dodgers Nation host Doug McKain often says). If I'm already committed to spending the time (and money) to move on, why not do it sooner?

Ditto

This has helped me pull the plug on a lot of collectibles that were ushered out the door.  But as much as I would like to make bold decisions in one swoop (would save me a shit ton on shipping fee's let me tell you), I am fickle. I teeter back and forth on cards left at this stage.

Like I still have the T206's. Those are immensely cool and I want to keep them at the moment, but guaranteed that they will not be with me forever either. They've survived in this world for far too long and should end up in the hands of another collector who'd like them at some point.

The only new scan you'll see in this entire post,
because this is my favorite Yu-Gi-Oh! card ever
and every other card shown in this post are also bangers

This has also allowed me to realize something I probably should've a long ass time ago.

It's called "stop picking up shit you're just going to give to someone else you moron".

This is a consequence of how I do want to collect cards but I have never truly figured out what I want to collect. As such I'm flinging shit against the wall, collecting cards I find neat, then moving on from them the second the shiny new toy (to me) effect wares off.

To combat this, I've tried and failed to attribute sentimental meaning to cards over the years.

Somehow this is still here

TTMs and IPs are cool but a majority of those are no longer with me.

At one point I had a super collection of my favorite player ever who I've met and got to see rise through the grind of a minor leaguer to become a major leaguer. I also said farewell to that collection in the best way I could've ever hoped for.

I've gone back and assembled a big chunk of the cards of players from years from when I was still new and wide-eyed regarding this hobby. They're already on the chopping block too (every certified autograph is a dead card walking) and I've already got ideas in place in terms of when and where they're going.

"Is nothing sacred?" I ask in vain.

Bonafide forever keeper

Believe it or not there is a list of absolute keepers, it's short af, and at my absolute core, I want it that way.

In spite of everything there are a few keepers that will be important to me for the rest of my days. The absolutely not going anywhere cards. My downsizing at this late stage is an attempt to really squeeze and weed them out.

Bonafide keeper forever

I've got about ten right now off the top of my head and that number could potentially balloon to 25 but I really want to keep it small enough that it all fits in a blaster box in toploaders.

If I could find even one such card after thousands of cards that didn't mean much to me, that's as close to a success to me as possible.

It might not seem like much compared to everyone else with binders upon boxes of colorful sets and collections. But to me having an extremely small assortment of stuff I've deemed worth keeping around after constant upheaval and being put through numerous rigors, is just how I like it.

I would appreciate getting off this merry go round for the sake of my wallet though.

As always thanks for stopping by and take care.