Coming Out Of Hibernation

This recent uptick in work activity that has kept me from blogging has also, sadly, kept me from keeping up with my collection.  I'm terribly far behind on recent releases from Topps and Panini and crew and I have yet to collect the first cards of names like David Bote (hot rookie premium prices aren't helping either), Steve Cishek, Tyler Chatwood, etc. in their Cubs uniform.  However, as my first Wrigley Roster Jenga post in three weeks yesterday indicated, things are finally starting to slow down to a manageable pace and now managing my baseball card collection doesn't feel like another extra chore.

I love my cards, but when work gets crazy, I don't want to do anything but nap, snack, and binge watch Friends on Netflix during my fleeting free time.  Super sedentary.

However, my energy has been on the up and up this week and with Heritage High Numbers having been out for more than a week now, I finally decided to stop by my LCS on the way home from work rather than beeline straight to my sofa.  HHN includes all of those Cubs debuts that I mentioned and I still enjoy the minimalist design of 1969 Topps - thus, it was the perfect Burbs bait.

Lo and behold, apparently my LCS has been falling behind as well, as there was no trace of the latest Topps product on the proprietor's shelves.  In fact, it wasn't even listed on his chalkboard of recent releases.  *womp, womp*

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Curses, foiled again!

Rather than immediately retreat back to my hidey-hole at home and dive head first into a bag of popcorn, I decided to mill about the shop and see what else I might be able to dig up.  After all, I was already there, I might as well.  I'm glad I did too because, while the shop's baseball stock was a little behind, there was a completely up to date selection of cards for another sport.  While my Cubs binder has been ignored lately, this box of cards proved to be exceptionally fruitful for a far more neglected collection of mine:

Da Bears!

The Monsters of the Midway were well-represented in the shop's football section, with a healthy selection of 2018 releases to choose from.  Seeing as how I had to brush the dust off of my Bears All-Time Roster Collection binder when I put these new finds into their proper slots, it'd been a minute since I last cracked open that tome.  I mean, with as embarrassingly bad as they've been over the past few years, I can't say that I've been motivated to keep up with the tire fire.

However, things are looking up this year, thanks in no small part to young, high-ceiling quarterback, Mitch Trubisky.  Although, the Bears have mauled the careers of many a young signal-caller,  so maybe, subconsciously, that's why I've waited until now to finally pick up a card for the second-year player.

Allen Robinson offers a veteran target for the aforementioned Trubisky, a position which has mostly been a revolving door since the departure of Alshon Jeffrey.  On Monday, the former Jaguar went out and caught 10 passes on 14 targets for 83 yards - that'll get the job done!  His very first Bears card comes as part of the 2018 Donruss release and his bug-eyed facial expression makes this card a gem!  

Meanwhile, the Bears managed to pull their biggest blockbuster trade since they traded for Jay Cutler when they managed to pry defensive beast, Khalil Mack, away from the Raiders.  This trade had fans dancing in the streets and, so far, the Mack Attack has been a godsend for the team.  Unfortunately, this transaction didn't go down until late in training camp, so Panini wasn't able to get him in the blue and orange for their newest stuff.  So, this 2017 Donruss single, from his days in Oakland, will have to do for now.

Josh Bellamy has been with the Bears since 2014, yet it took me until now to finally track down one of his cards... and he'd been one of the few bright spots during the John Fox-era. I told you that I've been slacking on this project!  Those he's been bumped down a few sports on the depth chart, here's hoping he continues to contribute during the Nagy-reign.

Javon Wims is a rookie, so I'm excused here.  The seventh-round draft selection hasn't seen any game action yet, but he did make the 53-man roster out of camp.  I hedged my bets and picked up a card for my BATRC... hopefully he doesn't get cut before making it onto the field!

Lastly, I picked up this pair of young stars, as well, thinking it was strange that I'd ignored them.  Well, as it turns out, not only am I behind on acquiring cards, I'm lacking in tracking my cards too.  While my Google Sheets document made no indication that I'd already hunted down Jackson and Cohen, my nine-pocket pages indicated otherwise.  Oh well.  As they say on the gridiron, I guess I now have "double coverage" on this Bears duo.

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And so, even though the shop didn't have what I came for, the journey turned out to be well-worth skipping out on Ross, Rachel, Chandler, Monica, Joey and Phoebe in the end.  That said, with only a 21.71% completion rate on my Bears All-Time Roster Collection, I still have a LOT of ground to make up.  Good thing work has finally slowed down enough to let me enjoy cards again!

With that, I think (knock on wood) I might finally be out of my blogging and baseball card funk.   Now if I could just find some of those Heritage High Numbers packs or blasters to keep this momentum rolling.  Otherwise, even though work appears to have finally normalized, I might just end up disappearing back into the bottomless abyss that is Netflix.... a marathon of The Office is always tempting...