Crossing borders...four times

I'd like to note right off the bat that the cards you're about to see in this post have crossed national borders no less than four times in the last couple months.

Picture this: I bought a stack of cardboard from a Canadian seller off Sportlots recently - paid a hefty shipping charge, but the cards were cheap and excellent enough for me not to mind much. I waited and waited for a good month or so until it became painfully apparent that something had gone wrong. I held out a little longer until I finally had to face the fact that they'd been sucked into the USPS abyss. The seller, to his massive credit, offered me a full refund.

So I re-purchased the handful of cards the seller had multiple copies of, and received those shortly after without a hitch. But the vast majority of what I'd ordered were scarce regional/team oddballs, and understandably ones he only had the one copy of. It was like a knife to the heart knowing those would be forever lost (only a slight exaggeration). And I thought that was gonna be the end of the story. 

A tragic tale, really - the only thing worse than cards I need are cards I almost had and yet still need!

But then a funny thing happened: I got a message from the seller saying the cards from the first order had mysteriously showed up on his doorstep, and did I still want them?

OF COURSE I DID! The seller, again to his full credit, sent the whole thing back to me, knocking a few bucks off the original price for the inconvenience (which wasn't his fault in the slightest). I, of course, was grinding my teeth the entire time, assuming the worst would happen and they'd get lost yet again, this time for good.

But to bring a Hollywood ending to the whole ordeal, the cards arrived safe and sound about a week later - hooray!

So, best I can tell, these cards were shipped from Canada, got lost somewhere in the US, got sent back to Canada, and eventually wound up with me in Illinois after a long and winding road of confusion.

It's a weird thing, cards getting lost in the mail. We take it for granted that stuff we receive and send will wind up where they need to go - but when they don't it kinda throws you. I was really, truly bummed that these cards got lost for a while there, and overjoyed when they eventually got to me.

Finally, all the scarce minor league stuff of perennial Dime Boxedonia favorites like Rod Beck and Obscure Dudes I Like For Some Reason like Ben Weber were mine!

Seeing as how this package came from Canada, you probably already know what these are.

OPCs!

I don't usually go out of my way to chase '70s OPCs, but if they're cheap enough my penny-pinching soul can't help but bite.

Always a sucker for a nice batch of TCMA oddballs - including a new Toy Cannon and proclaimed "All-Time Padre" Tito Fuentes who played exactly one season with the club.

A few other randoms here, including a couple Classics, a neat Pepsi Eck (even though I prefer Coke myself), and a glorious Japanese TCMA oddball of former MLBer Vernon Law - all of which somehow cost me a mere 18 cents a piece!

I've mentioned it a few times before, but I've been on a gigantic kick with team-issued oddballs lately - but the ones in this order were extra special considering they were issued in another country.

These all seem to have been stadium giveaways at Blue Jays games (I've still never tried an Oh Henry! bar), and that's the first and only card I've seen of Failed Cub Corey Patterson's half-season with the 2011 Jays.

I don't claim to be anything more than a passive Blue Jays fan, but they certainly seem to have more team-oriented oddballs than most other clubs out there (and better ones, too!).

In the end, I grant a great big tip of the cap to the seller who made all this wonderful cardboard available for so cheap, and for shipping no less than three different packages out to me during those wild and crazy couple months.

The journey these took obviously wasn't ideal, but I have to admit there's something special about the enjoyment I got (and am still getting) out of cards I thought were lost forever.