Appreciate what you have

“Why don’t you appreciate what you have?”

I still remember the first time I heard this. Christmas of 1990, I was 8 and very upset at the presents I received that year which consisted of paper, colored pencils, math flash cards, and Hit Stix 2. If you don’t know what Hit Stix are, they were these plastic drum sticks with a cord attached to a small speaker powered by a 9 volt battery that made all kinds of drum sounds. I am pretty sure they were sold at Radio Shack. They were pretty unremarkable if I am being totally honest.

Anyways, none of this stuff was what I asked for, and I was just very confused and upset after everything had been opened. With me being 8 years old, I didn’t realize what was happening in my family. The company my mom had been working for had gone out of business in August that year, and we as a family were struggling to get by. I remember pouting on the couch and looking at my crying mother and hearing her say, “why don’t you appreciate what you have?”

Typing that 32 years later really stings. Do I appreciate what I have now? I have a wonderful wife, 2 great kids, a 3 year old home that my wife and I feel we have no business living in, wonderful neighbors, a private playground across the street, great family who enjoys spending time with our kids, but yet I’m always looking for that instant gratification. You guys know what I’m talking about. That feeling we all get when we snipe that eBay auction for that card we have on our “wantlist”, or finding a rare gem on Sportlots, opening a pack to find a patch card, rookie, or a 1/1, or even selling a card on social media, COMC, or eBay. However, once that card arrives in the mail, is pulled from a pack or leaves my collection, that “high” I get from the initial purchase or sale is gone and sometimes I feel no attachment to the card I just bought or traded for.

Then comes the “rinse, repeat” cycle for me of scanning and putting the card away in a box. 

Scan….

Box….

Repeat …

Sometimes I honestly forget what all I have. So, are my cards that important to me if this is all that I’m doing with them? I’m honestly not sure anymore, but yet every night when my wife and I put the kids to bed and take our “chill time” from 8:30-10pm, there I am scouring websites looking for my next card purchase. There’s a current stack of cards I purchased in the past month or so sitting on my desk in my office that are unscanned and under appreciated. 

The under appreciated pile…

I am failing as a collector. So, I will be challenging myself in the month of September to scan these cards and hold off on the purchase of any new cards for one month and just appreciate what I have and even maybe posting one of them a day as a blog entry. 

I don’t want to leave you high and dry without any photos of cards. So here is the most expensive card I bought in the last month or so. I haven’t posted this card anywhere else, not social media, not anywhere. Here it is, a My Cardboard Life exclusive:

2011/12 Upper Deck The Cup Ryan Johansen Black RC 1/1

This is a card I found during one of my evening scours of the internet for cards. After it was scanned, it was placed in a box…

Repeat…

Appreciate what you have.