OUTSIDE THE BOX - I Caved (It's A Neverending Struggle)

One of the biggest challenges I face when things are slow in my little hobby world is curbing the urge to spend when really I shouldn't.  Buying things "just cuz".  It can get the best of me at times and it did just that last month.

Fresh off of a relaxing holiday break, I ventured to one of the local hobby shops in town for their monthly trade night.  I had a gift certificate (which I got as a gift a few days earlier) to spend/splurge on some sportscard goodness.

Problem was that I couldn't really find anything that fit into my wheelhouse of what I was looking for.  Linden wasn't in that many products at the time and the ones he was in weren't available at the time.

So it was "outside the box" time.

One of the things I insisted on doing over my holiday break was to go and see the new Star Wars movie with my nephew.  I was so excited to share the big screen experience of this iconic movie franchise with him.  We both love the previous movies (good, bad or indifferent) and was anxiously awaiting this newest adventure.

Long story short.....we both give the movie a hearty two thumbs up.

Why do I mention this?  Well because one of the products I saw at trade night was the new Star Wars High-Tek offering put out by Topps.

I couldn't resist.

I bought a box, opened it up (hoping for a sweet signature card) and landed a nice sketch piece of R2D2.  A solid hit....but not the big home run I was hoping for.

So that was that in terms of my gift card.  But against my better judgement....I caved - AGAIN!!!!  It really is something I need to address this year.

So how did I do with pack #2?  Well, it was another sketch card...

...but I think I can feel pretty good about this one.

Queen Amidala herself, Natalie Portman.  Nuff said.

The back of the card says "one-of-a-kind piece of original art" and I couldn't agree more.  This is art.....and it's awesome.  The artist is Marcia Dye and in looking at some of her other sketch cards does incredible work.

The idiot in me has kept it in my trade box for a month and a half now as opposed to putting it up on ebay to sell.  I hate selling on ebay.  I'm hoping to trade it for a few sweet PC cards but that might be a longshot at best.

What I do know is that sometimes when I cave....things don't always turn out so bad.

But I still need to address it this year.  Ha.