“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.
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This reminds me of several boxes in my closet marked "Misc Mom". (The result of her many "If you don't put these away in the next five minutes, I'm going to do it for you" warnings.) Unfortunately, I now feel I should spend some time un"misc"-ing them…
And that's the problem…once they are out of sight, they are out of mind too. Then you don't have to deal with them.
I am so there with you…I have close to a 3200 count box filled with the same kind of stuff you have in yours. Every once in a while I get around to putting a few cards away. So many cards, so little time!
Heh, I just put away about 100 cards just now. Took a little time, but it is fun to rediscover some cards that you forgot about.
So, has the box of chaos been cleaned out yet?