Baseball cards and Addiction

[BleedinBlue]

(Originally posted on the PSA boards Oct 08, 2009)

I need a little support here. I know there must be at least one other person out there who has experienced a similar fate and I'm hoping that with your support I can get through this.

The last month has been a bad time for me and my bank account. It's not my fault really but somehow a few weeks ago I got bit by The Monster. Not just any monster, The Monster. It was careless of me. I knew it was out there but I had always been able to keep it at arm’s length and admire it from afar. But, somehow the past few weeks have transformed me from a normal collector into somebody I don't recognize.

The T206 set has always been something I wanted to take a stab at. And when I picked up the last card for my 1953 Topps set a few weeks ago I had a void that needed to be filled. What am I going to do next? I guess that is how things start with other addicts as well. Anyway, I took what I thought was not an irrational step and bought a card. One card. Nothing fancy or expensive but I bought one. Ed Abbaticchio with Blue Sleeves in PSA 2. Piedmont 460 Back. $20 bucks. No Big Deal. The first card (alphabetically) in the set. As I envisioned things, this was the first step in a very long and sane journey toward a lifelong ambition.

Up to this point I'm real clear but soon after things start to get fuzzy. I remember that while waiting for my new card to arrive I started to do a little reading about The Monster. I read about things I "knew" but didn't really know. 524 cards. Sizable but manageable given time. 76 Hall of Famers. 48 Southern Leaguers. 4 Ty Cobb’s. 3 Cy Young’s. 2 Walter Johnson’s. Tinker to Evers to Chance. Eddie Plank, Sherry Magie, Joe Doyle. And Honus Wagner. The Card. Just to be clear, my name is not Donald Trump. I'm a collector but also a realist. Reality says this will be a 520 card journey rather than a 524 card journey but hey, who's to say I won't win the lottery in the next decade? Anyway, I'll cross that bridge when the time comes. But then things start to get murky. I started to learn things I "knew of" but didn't really know. 40 different backs. Piedmont and Sweet Caporal. Old Mill and Polar Bear. Sovereign and Tolstoi. Drum, Broadleaf, American Beauty, Carolina Bright, Cycle and El Principe De Gales. Ty Cobb with Ty Cobb back. Brown Hindu and Red Hindu? Brown Lenox, Black Lenox? Uzit? Factory 42? Over 5000 known front-back combinations? Nine different Sweet Caporal backs? 150 Series, 150/350 Series, 460 Series? Super Prints? O'Hara and Demmit in St. Louis but only with Polar Bear backs? Horizontal poses? The information overload left me woozy. Like most things in life, the more you learn the about The Monster the more you realize how much you don't know. Knowing my tendencies I should have predicted where this would lead. But I was naive. I thought I could control things.

A couple days later I went to my mailbox with life seemingly in check when reality stepped in to remind me who is boss. There it was. A seemingly innocuous Bubble Mailer mixed in with a couple of other Bubble Mailers. I sat down as I do many evenings to savor my daily take. I can't tell you what else came that day. It doesn't really matter. All I can clearly remember is opening that special package and seeing my new card for the first time. It is beautiful. Ed Abbaticchio. Piedmont. I couldn't get enough of this 100 year old piece of cardboard. I showed my family. I showed my friends. “Who’s he” they asked. I don’t know. It doesn’t matter. They all heard me but they just didn't understand. They still don't. I tried to explain but they couldn't know how I felt. Unfortunately, just like most "high's" this one started to fade. I still love my Ed Abbaticchio with Blue Sleeves and a Piedmont back but I needed another hit. I needed to feel that high again. So in all my wisdom I hatched a plan. I thought "I'll do these cards one at a time to stretch the experience out and keep things under control. I'll do them in alphabetical order picking them up one at a time." This seemed like a good plan. It would be nearly 100 cards before I hit the Ty Cobb sequence and nothing up to that seemed unreasonably priced. So I went to my local drug dealer, ebay, and found card #2 in the set. Ed Abbaticchio with Brown Sleeves. PSA 3. Another Piedmont back. Piedmont 150 this time. $30. No Big Deal. And irrecoverably the second step down this infernal path was taken.

The card arrived and the high was exquisite. I'm telling you it is better than sex. Heck I've been married 16 years so I don't really remember sex anymore but from what I remember this is better. But I needed another hit. And another. Card #3 Fred Abbott. Card #4 Bill Abstein. Easy scores. Quick highs. Low cost. Then the trouble began. I blame Card #5 Doc Adkins and I blame the Dodgers. My dealer was out of stock. How can this be? What do you mean this is a "tough common"? What do you mean you don't have any? I NEED DOC ADKINS!! My Dodgers are choking in September and I need something to get me through the regular season!! So, with my hands trembling slightly I decided to rethink my plan. I know, I'll expand my list. Sure, no big deal. I'll look for all the cards of players who's last names start with "A". There are only 10 more and it will give me more options. So with Doc Adkins (temporarily) unavailable I set off in search of my next hit. Atz, Armbruster, Anderson, Ames Portrait, Ames Hands at Chest, Ames Hands above Head, Adkins (finally), Alperman, Arellanes and Arndt all joined my stash with surprising rapidity. And fatefully my first back variations began to show up. A Sovereign, a Sweet Caporal and a couple of Polar Bears joined my Piedmont backed cards. With the "A" players having all been acquired I needed a new list. I took the next 10 cards and put them in my saved searches. And I started looking for Back Variations. And what the hell, while I'm at it I figured out a Brooklyn Superba's team set and decided to track that down as well. This really was my fatal mistake. With so many options I quickly bypassed the difficult cards and started buying with reckless abandon. I began making back alley deals with shady characters including some of you reading this. I needed that next hit. I needed to score. I needed to recreate that high. And I went on a buying spree like never before. I bought those 10 cards (the ones I could find), I bought 21 of the 27 Brooklyn Superba's. I bought a Cycle back, an American Beauty back, all the Piedmont backs, all the Sweet Caporal backs, all the Sovereign backs. An El Principe De Galles. Old Mill, Old Mill Southern League. I bought cards for no good reason other than the seller had them and I needed them. Hey, I'm saving shipping charges if I buy 2 aren't I? It's like the cards are on sale!! I had to have them all and I just kept buying.

Reality is a mother and facing reality can be a sobering experience. For me reality came in the mail yesterday. After quickly ripping through the large stack of bubble mailers last night I came across a very thick envelope from somebody called MasterCard. Maybe some of you know him? He acts like a friend but really he's just using you. Anyway my former friend MasterCard said it was time for him to call in his favors. It was time to pay the piper and oh what a steep price it was. As I stared at the sheets and sheets of charges I thought that surely somebody must have stolen my identity. Then I prayed that HOPEFULLY somebody had stolen my identity. But after carefully cross checking my records I realized there was no one else to blame. I had done this to myself. Somehow I had taken an innocent little adventure down the T206 path and turned that first slow step into 90 quick ones. Didn't I realize The Monster is a marathon and not a sprint? I had bought 90 T206 cards in only 6 weeks. Nearly 20% of the set in such a short time. I had figured it would take me 2 years to get this far.

So, as I sit here recovering from the shock I realize there is only one way to get over this addiction. I need to quit cold turkey. No cards of any kind. 30 days. I should probably do 60 or 90 days but those numbers seem too daunting. 30 days. I can do it right? After all collecting is something I do right? Not who I am? It's a hobby, not an addiction right? Fortunately I have the post season to keep me occupied. Damn those Dodgers better knock off the Cardinals this week. I don't think I can make it without them. If they can just get to the next round that would give me a couple more weeks of distraction.

30 Days.

This is day 1.