Saturday, January 19, 2019

Distractions

Yesterday I was bored at work, so I made up a document that listed some more astronaut-related singles and sets.  Then I posted the lists to my non-sports page on my wants site.  As you know, I like to make graphical lists, so it looked something like this:


Of course, after all that, I was jonesing to find some of the new quarry, so I went out on eBay.  I searched around for the different complete sets and made offers on a couple playing card sets from Kennedy Space Center.  Some might say playing cards don't belong in with the kinds of cards we collect, but these have photos and information on them like a lot of the trading cards.  And me being the completist that I am, I got both variations of the set - the four suits have certain groups of photos on them, and between the two decks, the groups are switched around.  Plus the backs are different.


Anyway, that gave way to searches on the other space sets.  I covered Star Wars from 1977 - still need the green & orange series. Put a couple batches on the Watch list. 

This was not one of them unfortunately.

Then on to Trek.  I picked up the latter half of the first movie card set, but am having trouble finding only half a set.  The full 88 cards can be had very reasonably, though like Star Wars, there are also stickers that go with them.  Found out about another similar set from a bread company.  Rainbo Bread put out a ST:TMP set.  Only 33 cards, the backs are completely different than the Topps set.  So add them to the list....


Had to shut it down and go to bed after a while. 

Got home today and hadn't had a chance to post for the day, so I wanted to put something up.  Thought about posting on a stack of vintage cards I got from a neighbor, but I need to take pictures before and after I sort them out, so that will have to wait.

The sellers from last night had worked out the offers, so I got back on the 'Bay.  Well, you know what happens from here, especially since I'm posting at this hour.

I checked out for the two decks of cards, then cleared a couple other auctions for them off my watch page.  Which of course leads to a "quick" perusal of a couple of my Saved Searches. 

I ended up looking for the 2007 Sweet Spot Classic jersey cards that I still need, as well as any lots of the base cards.  While looking over those, I started downloading images for my list again.  It hadn't been updated in a while.  I only got two from the list since printing it out a few years ago.  The images of each card were different sizes, and I was missing a couple, so I went about recomposing the list and adding the missing pictures.  Here's how it came out.  Most of these are over $15 at least.  The big guns are much more.


While researching for that, the phone rings.  It's Stuart.  We chat about car repairs, weekend card hunting plans, etc. for a little while.  Then Mom calls in too.  She asks about the vintage stack and a few other things.  Those two calls kill the hour.

I get back on and I'm not even sure what I was looking at when I come across a seller I've bought from before. Somehow I figure out he's got GU and autos really cheap.  I search his stuff for almost all my player collection guys, and some key sets, plus Redskins.  I end up with an order of 17 different things, none of them more than $5 and most less than three, totalling just over $50.  Checked out on those too. 
Four whole dollars!
Pair for $3.50!
Bounced around to a couple more things and was getting bleary eyed.  So I signed out. 

It is midnight and I didn't post anything.  Ugh! 

I set out to jump on and right back off of eBay, but ended up on for like four hours.  I'm sure it happens to all of us.  Even now, when eBay isn't the best way to buy cards, except for in lots and sets.

How often do you do marathon sessions on eBay (or any other card selling site)?  Not even necessarily buying anything when you're done...

5 comments:

  1. Don’t forget the 1967 German Heinerle Set with Neil Armstrong’s rooking Card in it. I sometimes will go down rabbit holes as I search for stuff. Interesting to see what things can get dig up.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I do my eBay shopping more in short spurts. The longest I might go is when I'm putting together an order from one dealer to combine shipping...something I'm actually likely to do today or tomorrow. Even then I'll scope some things out first then put it together later.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Got to love Upper Deck, not only putting two relievers from different teams on the same card, but using a jersey swatch that doesn't match the picture of either of them.

    ReplyDelete
  4. That was quite the marathon indeed! Normally I don't spend that much time looking for, or through, cards on any site - and it's been next to nil over the last couple of months (waning interest).

    ReplyDelete
  5. When eBay has 10x eBay bucks or a 10 to 15% off coupon, I'll spend maybe an hour searching for stuff to add to my cart. 2 hours is probably the record for me. The same can be said for COMC. I can also spend close to an hour over at 4 Sharp Corners.

    ReplyDelete