CARDS, CARDS, CARDS...AAAAAAARRRRRRGH

           Well, Energizer Paula tried to continue on Monday her superlative work of Sunday. She was doing so well and figured she’d complete a very huge task without having too much of a problem…NOT!!!

John had three safes in the garage. Two of them are now empty, but the third and potentially the largest one is not. It is full of collector cards, notebooks full of collector cards and stuff about which I have absolutely no idea. From the initial viewing, I thought I’d just take out the boxes, many which are still in their cellophane wrap, and stack them in those large, but low fruit boxes I get from Costco. I’ve been saving them up for this project.

I hadn’t counted on the notebooks. I have no idea when John must have put these together, but it had to have been all the way back when I had a job and was gone for hours every day five days a week. And, did you know there are smut cards??? Yep, there are baseball-like trading cards with photos of various naked or mostly naked women on them. I’m not sure if their statistics, i.e., 36-24-36 are on the cards because I didn’t take the time to examine. There’s an entire notebook named Olivia and another named Gretchell. What do you do with this type of collector card???

There are Coco-cola and Harley Davidson collector cards of several types. Some are called gold cards and others appear to be just colored cardboard. Between what’s in this safe, a big trunk and John’s bedroom, I could probably spend the remainder of my life trying to figure out some sort of order and how to go about selling them.

There were also four stacks of old National Geographics, some dating back to the early 1920s, but I recycled them, so they’re gone, or will be in two weeks when the recycle is picked up again. Besides the cards in boxes and notebooks, there are a number of boxes that contain metal tins that apparently also include collector cards. Those still have the plastic around them as well. I’ve never ever seen anything like that before, but then I’ve not been a collector.

If they aren’t saleable, perhaps I’ll get a firepit for the backyard and burn them. In fact, I could set the firepit up adjacent the family burial tree and laugh like a mad woman as I toss each one into the fire. Do you think John’s ashes would begin to smoke??? I simply cannot imagine how much money he invested in the purchase of all these cards. Is this supposed to be my inheritance; and if so, why couldn’t he have left some sort of instructions that would tell me what to do with them??? The photo on the right is just the top shelf.

I haven’t been angry with John for several months now, and I’m not going to be angry today. Instead, I have a plan. I’m going to go see the shopkeeper John knew who trades in cards and stuff down in the local mall. I haven’t ever spent a lot of time in his store, Diamond in the Mall, and I hope it’s still open and viable.  I’m sure he can advise me as to what I should do with this huge stash of stuff. Maybe I’ll even get lucky and he’ll either offer to purchase or take on consignment.

I figured I could sell stuff on E-bay, but that hasn’t gone so very well at all. The few things I placed either did not get a response, or the response was a very low offer which I didn’t accept. Youngest son is apparently selling stuff on E-bay and doing quite well. Maybe I could get him to give me some pointers that would make it easier for me. I think I’d even be willing to pay him for his time if he would do that. Or, maybe he’d just like to do the posting and selling and I’ll split the income with him. Think we’ll need to have a bit of a talk.

As for the big safe, I really wanted to include it in the garage sale and get it out of here. AJ and Haley and maybe Thor will begin giving me a hand next weekend. Perhaps they’ll be willing to clean it out and schlep the stuff to the junk (John’s bedroom) room. I’m simply not up to doing it no matter how energized I’m feeling. If I even try further, I think I may lose my energy and have to have another pity-party…don’t want to go there since whatever got into me was great and I’d like it to stick around.