A Ghost Card Found After A Mail Carrier Lost It

I have complained on my blog about my postal carrier before, she will often place mail in the wrong people’s box and she has a habit of not delivering certified mail to people’s homes instead putting a “Sorry we missed you” card in your mail box expecting you to go to the post office to pick up the letter.

This one takes the cake. As I was closing in on my 500^th Griffey card I came across a 1994 Bowman Griffey for a good price. This was a ghost card so I decided to pick it so I could get it back in to my collection. The card was shipped on June 26^th but it never showed up. I emailed the seller to let him know I didn’t get it but I told him I wasn’t complaining because it is the chance we take when getting a card shipped by PWE, he did his part so I wasn’t asking for my money back or a replacement.

This shows up in my mailbox today. If you notice it has two postmarks nearly 3 months apart as well as a handwritten note about being delivered to the wrong address.

Now I don’t put all the blame on the mail carrier, she just delivered it to the wrong box, but whichever of my neighbors who got this obviously didn’t put it back out to be re-delivered or go that one-step further and walk around the corner to my house and give it to me like I do whenever I get someone else’s mail. My neighborhood is not that large and for someone to hold on to it for 3 months is pretty crappy of the neighbor.

Anyway, I have finally replaced one of my favorite ghost cards so all is well.

Exercising Some Seattle Ghost Cards

I had a wonderful mail day today and what makes it better is that I was able to take care of four ghost cards, actually more than that but the rest are Griffey cards that I will cover later.

 

First up are a couple of Jay Buhner rookie cards. Bone spent 14 glorious years in Seattle, we (the fans) were spoiled through the 1990s with Griffey and Buhner in the lineup. He was a fan favorite in Seattle, just ask any fan how popular Buhner Buzz Night was every summer when fans would line up to have their heads shaved to earn free admission in to the games.

 

As my second favorite Mariner I have a nice selection of Buhner cards but unfortunately I recently realized that a couple of key Buhner rookie cards were no longer in my collection, thanks to my vindictive ex-wife. I came across a seller who had two of the cards I need for $2.50 shipped so I jumped on it.

Even Seinfeld had to add their ¢2 cents on the trade that sent Buhner to Seattle for Ken Phelps to the Yankees.

 

 

1988 Donruss The Rookies #11

1988 Score Rookie/Traded #95T

 

 

The next two cards are Steve Largent cards, again they were ghost cards that I needed for my collection. These two cards cost $2.49 shipped together so a decent deal to add some missing cards.

 

1989 Score #225

1989 Pro Set #396

A Bundle Of Griffeys

On Monday I came across an auction for a lot of 20 different Griffey cards, they were listed as 1989-2014 and the bid was only .99 cents so I tossed in a bid for $2.25 and waited. He only showed 14 cards in the pictures and his description listed only a couple of the cards that were already shown but there were three cards that I was actively hunting and if I could get all these cards for the price of  a couple of the cards I was hunting I would be happy.

 

In the end I did win with the $2.25 bid, toss in another $2.99 shipping and the package was shipped. I figured at $5.24 for 20 cards I was only paying .26 cents per card. Considering I do not have any local card shops and the nearest decent card show is 31 miles away I don’t get the chance to search through dime and quarter boxes to often.

 

I got the padded envelope today and the dealer sent 20 Griffey cards plus a checklist (showing Griffey) and two cello packs of 1994 Post Cereal baseball cards for a total of 27 cards. All but three of the cards were from the 1990s, but that is ok because I needed all of them. I also exercised another Griffey ghost, 1994 Stadium Club. In the end the price per card was only .19 cents.

 

This was a very nice gesture from the seller, especially after I got the discolored Bowman Best cards last week, which that seller has offered to refund me completely. I sent the cards back to him on Tuesday so hopefully that works out. Here are some of the highlights from this pick up.

 

 

 

And a couple of oddballs

Who You Gonna Call?

Ok, so I didn’t have to call the Ghostbusters to exercise my Griffey ghost card. I got an email from Daniel Wilson, who once again offered to help me out, from It's Like Having My Own Card Shop letting me know he had an additional 1995 Pinnacle Griffey #128 card, the famous bubble gum card, and that he would send it to me.

It is a wonderful feeling having a card in your hand that you know you are missing from your collection, even a base card like this one.

Knowing that I am a Diamondback’s fan and that I do not have a D-Backs personal collection Daniel included a group of cards to get my collection going. Some young players and established vets that have worn the D-backs jersey so that I had a nice variety, guys like Matt Williams, Stephen Drew, Conor Jackson and Randy Johnson.

Thank you once again Daniel, I really appreciate your generosity.

The Frustrations Of A Ghost

When it comes to collecting specific players or teams there can be frustration, hunting down the cards can be difficult and with today’s never ending parade of rainbow parallels it seems even worse. Now you not only search for the base card but you are also chasing down the colored parallels, the chrome versions, the platinum versions, the five different refractors and the special short-print, diamond refractor photo variation printed on the back of a pure 24k gold chocolate chip cookie card.

The one frustration that seems to get at me the most though is the “Ghost” card. The card you swear you have seen in your collection but when you are looking for it the card is no longer there. My phantom card is the 1995 Pinnacle Ken Griffey Jr. card, #128. The card where he is blowing a giant bubble. I swear this card is in my collection but I cannot find it. I have a binder specifically for my Griffey collection, all of his cards go in this binder and once they go in they do not come out. It just drives me crazy that I know I had this card but it now has disappeared.