“An empty table can be a card collectors best friend. A full table, his worst enemy.”
– Sun Tzu, The Art of War*
That said, in a moment of clarity, I decided to take all of the cards that were cluttering my designated “card table” in my Room Of Hockey, and throw them in a two-column shoebox.
Now, I have a clear table–limitless potential!
But I also have a box of stuff that needs to be sorted and put away. A box…of CHAOS!
I wonder how these things happen. A year ago, I used to sit at this same table and open packs, or put cards into pages. I had the space to do that.
Then the table became overrun with hockey cards…
- Numerous cards pulled for trades that never happened
- Unopened packs of Stadium Club from 1999
- A stack of Classic Hockey cards I picked up last summer at a small card shop downtown
- Cards that were meant to be sent out for TTM autographs, but never were
- Old, used top loaders that can be used for trades or as card dividers
- An insert set of Upper Deck Scoring Predictors from the mid-1990s
- Some 1990s promo cards
- A Ryan Kesler Young Guns rookie card
- Numerous odds and ends
Behold, this Box of Chaos:
So, I am going to attempt a new collecting habit.
Instead of putting things on this table and never dealing with them, I am going to put them in this box.
And each day, I am going to put away at least 10 cards. Maybe more if they are all from the same set.
Sure, that sounds like a chore–but it still beats “real” chores like taking out the garbage, washing dishes, walking the dogs, doing laundry or making the bed.
* – Just kidding…Sun Tzu never said that.
In other news, I rented a space at a neighborhood Art, Craft and Collectibles Fair over the weekend. I was hoping to cash in on what is left of Blackhawks Mania, but not too many people were interested–even those wearing ‘Hawks apparel. I did manage to unload a few 2010-11 Victory base sets, and a few low-end ‘Hawks cards. But my biggest seller over the weekend was Star Wars action figures. I guess in Chicago, Darth Vader is still more popular than Patrick Kane.