The Road to 66.6%

I had hoped to get my 666th TCDB transaction completed by my birthday. I failed.

I had hoped to cross the 2/3 mark (or 66.6% completion) for my 1956 Topps set build by my birthday. 

Failed at that, too.

 

Missing these arbitrary milestones in time for an arbitrary deadline isn't necessarily my fault. I've completed 663 transactions, with four in progress. Of those four I've received three..kinda. (One was missing a card - which the trader has agreed to send.)

All of those trades except one contain(ed) New Jersey Devils cards. So I have a 75% chance of reaching that goal. It's all about timing; which brings me to my second goal.

When I set my goal of hitting 2/3 completion for my '56 set I had already accumulated a decent stack of singles on COMC. And so I picked out the five best cards I could afford on the only site that scans the front and back of each product, wasted some time on Challenges to cover the shipping charge, and requested shipment.

It seemed I was just in time; the scheduled ship date would result in my order being delivered on my birthday. Perfect!

Yeeahhh... that didn't happen. The number of orders ahead of mine wasn't decreasing fast enough. The shipment was pushed back ten days. The cards still aren't here. The order just shipped, so it should be here early next week.

Once I realized that, I opted for a contingency plan: eBay. Honestly, I don't even mess with bidding anymore. I just go straight to Buy It Now and overpay to get what I want right away. It worked... kinda.

Did I get my order in time for my birthday?

Yes!

Was it enough to push me past 66.6% completion?

No!

When the COMC order does arrive I plan to celebrate the milestone with a scan parade. Would anyone be interested in seeing scans of 200+ 1956 Topps cards across four posts? 

On a related note, I had also hoped that my order from baseballcardstore would show up in time for my birthday. That didn't get here in time either, and has not yet shipped. I requested shipment for that one ten days earlier than the COMC order, but one is a big business with dozens of employees and a shipping department; the other is a two-person operation out of a private home. 

But, when my bday came and went without cards from BBCS (and saw them advertising on TCDB) I sent a very brief email to Steven:

Just checking on the status of this order. I know you and Nancy have a lot of cards to pull by yourselves, so I completely understand if it isn't ready. Thanks & take care.

I think they were offended, because this notice immediately showed up on their website.

As a peace offering (and a way to blow some birthday cash) I filled a cart with 40 more cards and planned to place another order. But I figured that would slow my original order even more so I scrapped it.

I can't complain too much. The Packers won their first preseason game, the Yankees were in dead last in the AL East* on my bday, and their soon-to-be fired manager's grandpa arrived in my mailbox right on time.

*They're still better than the AL Central leader and they'd be the first WC team in the NL. Sheesh.

Also I got perfect scores on all four Imamculate Grids. Not great totals (my lowest was actually NFL) but zero misses for the first time. 

And I'll have a hundred new cards to scan and discuss on Monday :)

Thanks for reading, and have a great weekend!

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