Card collection pays off with Mo

BC Sports is a card/memorabilia chain store that is located through the East Coast, primarily in the Northeast. Sadly, like many card shop, the cards are overpriced, often times grossly overpriced.

That hasn't stopped me from shopping there. Sometimes -- sometimes -- you can catch some deals. Perhaps a couple of older boxes get marked down. But it always has the newest items from Topps Series 1 to Upper Deck Premier.

BC Sports offers a club and not just for kids. With your BC Sports card, you get 10 percent off boxes and they track the amount of money you spend because at the end of the year you can use points to purchase memorabilia. For every 250 you spend on cards in the store (this includes loose packs), you get $25 off at the end of the year.

I've actually never used my points at the end of year, which is dumb. If I am spending the money, I might as well reap the small benefit I get of spending money in this store.

This year I had $100 to use (yeah, that's $1,000 I spent in the store in 2008). This year, BC had a huge sale on its memorabilia right around the time you are supposed to use the girt certificates.

As I looked through the store, this one based in the Philadelphia region, there was mostly Phillies products such as a Cole Hamels auto'ed World Series baseball or a Chase Utley auto'ed All-Star game baseball.

I considered both, but I had my eye on something else.

The guy behind the counter (who knows my name, my job, my boyfriend and his collections -- clearly I spent too much time in this place) said, "You can get that kind of stuff anywhere."

He was right and I caved. I said, "Get it."

With the discount and my gift certificate, I spent about $150 on this item and I'm thrilled.

Mariano Rivera, a nine-time all star, is one of my favorite Yankees. There have been so many great moments in recent Yankee history that he has been apart, it's difficult not to like this man.

He always has a smile on his face. He's a giving and generous person. He's a heck of a competitor.

Rivera is 40 and still at the top of his game. While watching him, you can't help but wonder how a man who weights 140 pounds soaking wet can rear back and throw the way he does. Even in his worst moments -- 1997 against Cleveland (I hate you Sandy Alomar) and 2004 ALCS against the Red Sox (I blame Tom Gordon more) -- he is still great and the embodiment of class.

I haven't figured out where this is going to go yet, but I'm sure it will go in the crazy room (That's what we call the office, which houses all of my baseball cards).