Back in business

Good news from Dime Boxedonia: I'm employed again!

I am, once again, gonna be working at a bookstore here in the Chicago area - tomorrow's my first day. This'll be my first job with an independent bookstore vs. the chains I've been at in the past. I'm happy to report that this was probably my easiest job hunt yet - I basically got the first job I applied to - and makes me feel even more validated for leaving my last poisonous workspace. I never really intended to build a bookstore career, but here we are. Doesn't hurt that I've built up a good six years of experience in the field now. Plus it sure beats the hell out of the six months I spent working at Panera Bread many moons ago.

Until I can land that mythical card shop job, it looks like the bookstore remains the home of my employment future, and I'm perfectly okay with that.

To me, working in bookstores is a perfect balance of being interested in my work without having to take the work home with me (for the most part). 

Whether this is a good or bad thing, I don't know, but I've never launched into the job market with the intentions of building a bonafide career - all I really ask is that it pays decently and supplies enough relaxation for me to do the things I wanna do on my own time. Namely: collect baseball cards, of course! Because I'm sure gonna need a lot of time to admire the trio of photo-variation SPs that Kevin of "The Diamond King" blog recently gifted to me.

I'm still not quite sure why I love photo variations so much - they have no reason to exist and are often a pain to track down - but they're always banner adds to my binders (there's a whole heap of 'em in my latest COMC order, if/when that ever shows up).

Those variants would've been more than enough to make me happy, but Kevin sent a few friends along for the ride.

Always love the odd thrill of transparent baseball cards, and that Ichiro is some kind of team-centric oddball I would've never otherwise seen in a thousand years.

Watching the Cubs lately has been about as fun as getting shampoo in my eye, but against my better judgment I'm still a fan & still want the cards!

Bo of "Baseball Cards Come to Life!" recently reached out to let me know he had this 2006 Topps Larry Walker off my Dime Box Dozen list, which kicked off another nice trade between the two of us.

Not only is this a hit for my broken bat mini-collection (notice the knob in Walker's right hand), but it's always Walker's sunset card - probably not the image he'd want captured on his grand finale, but I still love it.

Bo also dug up a couple more mini-collection hits for me, including a Kerry Wood card that rolls so many things I love into one tidy baseball card: a weird semi-licensed '90s oddball, a pitcher hitting, and an error (Kevin Wood?!).

A few hometown names from Bo - once again, I'm forced to admit I do collect failed Cubs prospects like Hee Seop Choi and Josh Vitters, for some doggone reason.

Oddballs and others here - the Maris is a reprint, but the Richert is a very real & very welcome addition to my defunct teams collection.

I also struck up a nice little card exchange with Jay of the "Card Hemorrhage" blog recently, but never did I think it'd wind up with him sending me a Vida Blue oddball as sweet as this one...

...much less a whole gaggle of others from that very same A's-centric set!

I'm not exactly sure how or when these were issued, but I found the Bert Campaneris in a dime box a long, long time ago, and had never seen another one until Jay sent this stack my way.

I never did see a single pack of 2020 Topps Fire in the wild.

It's not anything I'm too upset about, but there are cards from this set I need - thankfully Jay tracked down a few of the throwback jersey Fire sightings for me.

A few other random gems from Jay - that Ichiro is actually an Archives reprint, and why are we reprinting cards from 2008 again?

Finally comes a package I received from Tom of "Waiting 'til Next Year," a fellow Cubs fan (for now) and a longtime friend of the blog.

I must've mentioned I collect Jesus Aguilar at some point in this blog's history - either that, or Tom's a mind-reader, because this mini-Big League Aguilar rainbow was definitely a special treat!

An excellent assortment of randoms from Tom, but let's be honest - you and I both know Will Clark steals the show here.

It's happened so many times: I go to put a new card into my binders, only to find that, what's this, I already have this card?! (Sigh.)

But here's one of the rare instances of the inverse of that phenomenon: for whatever reason, I was almost positive I already had this Hostess Johnny Bench that Tom was nice enough to send me. Nevertheless, I took a desultory look through my Reds binder, and I'm sure glad I did - because this card was nowhere to be seen. And as we all know, a Hostess card I need is among the greatest things anyone could ever send me. Just one of many reasons I'm infinitely thankful for having not only the outlets and means to collect baseball cards, but also the time to myself to actually enjoy my collection.

So for now I bid adieu, and only ask for prayers that I can keep my first-day screw-ups at the new job to a minimum tomorrow.