Closing Up Shop

So here's the thing about this hobby of ours. It's supposed to be a fun way to occupy one's leisure time. But what happens when our 'leisure time' increases tenfold but our access to sports cards is practically cut off? 

Earlier this week I got an e-mail from Burbank Sports Cards with a 15% off coupon:

My plan was to wait until the weekend (and the next credit card billing cycle) to fill my cart with $30 worth of singles. Unfortunately I didn't make it that far. By Friday morning Burbank Sportscards - along with every other non-essential business in the state of California - had been ordered to close.

Which brings me to option #2 - Cardbarrel. This was sort of a last resort; I've completed nearly all of the baseball sets I was working on, and they don't sell cards for any other sports. However I do have a tentative plan for a new franken-set that's related to my All-Time Teams series. Cardbarrel could help with that project, and I could always pick up some Red Sox singles or boost some player PCs.

It looks like the site is still doing business, even though they're in New York and that state is also under lockdown. I started filling my card with whatever singles I could think of, but before finalizing my order I e-mailed Mehmet, the proprietor of Cardbarrel. I asked him if he's still filling orders at this time. Haven't heard back, so I'm not sure if I should go ahead and place an order. What would you do?

Here's my LCS, Attack of the Baseball Cards:

It's hard enough getting there under normal circumstances. I don't think I've been there in at least five years, but I still get their e-mails on the off chance that my brother-in-law wants to go to Pack Wars. I wonder if they did more business today than usual..or less?

I know it makes no sense to non-collectors, but if you're reading this you might also feel that having new cards to flip through and enjoy is helpful in times of great uncertainty and/or stress. A lot of you are much more prepared for this than I am. Perhaps you've built up a pack stash for this exact reason, or you made one last run to Target, Wal-Mart, or your LCS. I was never able to get out there, and it feels unimportant but also unsettling. 

COMC certainly helps fill that void. I've got over 80 nice cards sitting in my inventory and I'm usually able to add 1-2 cheap cards per day, thanks to Challenge credit. Also I was able to make three more TCDB trades this week. I sent those envelopes out this morning, with much more concern than the usual 'don't wreck the cards' thought in my head. Some folks don't want to receive any mail at the moment. I'm not one of them, but out of respect for those who are concerned I won't send away for my COMC purchases or make any more trades until the Coronavirus is completely contained.

I do still plan to have a Free Stuff Friday exclusive event soon. However I will only send cards if and when the participants are comfortable with receiving them (and of course I will take precaution.) Oh, and one more reminder that my All-Time Teams posts are listed on the Your City, Your Team tab at the top of my blog. If you get bored you can catch up on the series. (And if I get bored I'll fix up the previous posts and release the remastered versions!)

It seems certain that the 2020 MLB season will be an abbreviated one - if it happens at all. I've wondered what will become of the NHL and NBA seasons; they've still got about a month's worth of games before the playoffs. Assuming those leagues get the "all clear" to continue by May 15 or so, it would be terribly unfair if the regular season was declared 'finished' as-is. I'm not even sure if you could cut the regular season back to 76 games without affecting the integrity of the postseason races. 

My suggestion would be to play out the regular season as scheduled but make all of the playoff series best-of-5. That would trim about a month off the schedule without creating any inequitable results like the ones produced by baseball's split-season in 1981. How would you resume an interrupted NHL/NBA season, or plan an abbreviated baseball season?

Perhaps I'll explore some potential NHL/NBA playoff scenarios in a future post, along with a list of legends who have likely played their last game if the season does not resume.

I had planned to take a blogging break in April, but it seems I've got plenty of post ideas even if there are no new cards to show off or sports to discuss. There won't be a 'closed' sign at The Collector for quite a while!

Thanks for reading, and take care out there!



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