A big, hearty THANK YOU

When I started this blog in 2007 (what?!), it was simply a place to talk about trading cards. Marie and I had each other to discuss cards and show each other our new goodies, but the writer in me wanted to do a bit more.

Since then, so many things have changed:
- I’ve changed jobs three times.
- I have more gray hair.
- I moved back to New York.
- I gained three more nieces.
- I got married.

That is just the short list.

The crazy thing about A Cardboard Problem is that I would likely wouldn’t have the job now if this blog wasn’t created. I wrote about cards on this site for several years. Then, I got an opportunity to do freelance pieces for Beckett and eventually became an editor there. Four months ago, I landed at Topps, and having experience in the card industry certainly helped.

Through the blog I also have meant and traded with so many great collectors. It renewed my love for collecting because I didn’t feel as though Marie and I were in a collecting vacuum. There were still thousands of collectors and many of you came to visit our little blog about two women who love cardboard.

I was completely humbled after my wedding. Besides marrying someone who is a card collector (who’s luckier than me?), I received gifts in the mail that were arranged by Stale Gum (government names kept out to protect the innocent) where more than a dozen people gave to buy Dan and me a gift.

For those that didn’t know, we got a toaster oven and a blender. I have already made some frothy adult beverages with the blender and they were delicious.

I am deeply touched by the gift. In all my wildest imaginations, I never thought that a little card blog would turn into a place where I would meet great friends. Even if we have never met and simply chat on Twitter all day or simply comment on each other’s blogs, I know I have truly made great friends that go far beyond our hobby. I didn’t list the names, but you will be getting a special thank you card in the mail that may just include a real trading card of the newlyweds.

Thank you so very much.

A bipping sponsored by Stale Gum

Some of you have have read Chris' blog asking for an all out bip attack/war of some sort against some bloggers, myself included. I was a little worried how this was going to turn out, and since I already have plenty of crappy cardboard I wasn't looking forward to 200 Bip Roberts cards in my mailbox.

It didn't exactly work out that way, and honestly I think this was the best bipping EVER. I would like for someone to top a bipping of this caliber. Here are the cards, which have made nice new home in my PC.






2009 Topps Unique Prime Patches Robbie Cano /99

Thanks to Stale Gum for the BEST bipping. The Cano card made my day.

Local card shop findings

The past few days I have been MIA from the blogosphere because I went down to stay at Suzy's house for a few days. We had a good time, played some Wii, golfed, his a card shop, and a Target. We can't possibly hang out together for days without going to a Target or a card shop, or both.

The local shop that we went to is more of a store that sells local team merchandise, autographs, and team knick knacks. They have a couple of hobby boxes behind the counter, a few game used cards and autos in a case, and some binders/boxes with cards. Nothing great in the case, so we flipped through a binder and we picked out some cards, well I picked out a bunch- even some for a couple of fellow bloggers in case they needed them. There were no Jeter cards, and very few Pujols in the mix. Not a single Cano either now that I think about it. Long story short, all the cards in the scan cost me $4.25. I think I did ok even if I don't need those M&M Pujols, I couldn't pass them up for 50 cents.


I got a whole ton of trades and things in the mail today. Not going to the post office for a few days definitely paid off for some boredom now that I have no one to play Wii with. (sad face here) I got a bunch of Pujols cards from one of our readers, McCann Can Triple. There was also a random package from Waxaholic which made me happy, as well as a box of OPC goodness from Stale Gum and a sweet package of posters from the National from Dan over at Saints of the Cheap Seats.

While I don't know how I got so lucky to find a great group to trade with and talk to on a somewhat daily basis, but it is awesome and I am grateful for it.

eBay and Stale Gum mail day

Today I went to the post office and saw my favorite two things: an eBay bubble mailer and a surprise bubble mailer. The surprise came from Chris at Stale Gum and was awesome of him to send me something out of the blue.

I'll cut to the chase.

2009 Series 2 Career Best auto Robbie Cano



I had my eye on these Cano auto's watching to see where most of them ended and they were fairly reasonable (less than $10) for the most part. I ended up getting mine for $5 which seems to be below the average selling price, which is awesome for me.

Now for the surprise bubble mailer. I was opening my mail at the table and started cracking up instantly because of this:



Now, I show it to my mom and she's like, "You hate Matsui." Yes, I do and that is why I was laughing in the first place. Chris made me day because his autograph is more valuable to me than Hideki, but this is all a story for another day. I don't believe I mentioned this to Chris, but you made my day with that card being signed.

Chris also included 2 Pujols cards, and a nice chunk of YSL cards. Let the rummaging begin to find some stuff for Chris. Thanks dude!

Now I have to move onto the not so fun part of collecting, logging everything in. The sad thing is, collecting would be really hard without this aspect of it. Who knows how many doubles and triples we might end up purchasing or trading for without a list of some sort.