Now to the main point of this post, only my close circle of collector friends understand or at least accept my obsession with the 2012 topps base and chrome sets of Ichiro. It was at a time where my collection of his was gaining momentum and suddenly became the last year he would be in a mariners uniform. The next two years he wasn't signed to be in the topps cards for reasons unknown which helped fuel my interest in these cards. Collecting the whole chrome rainbow has always been my ultimate goal but after the superfractor was sold early on when chrome was released I accepted the fact that it would never surface in the market as its likely sitting in another Ichiro collection never to be seen again. That's fine, I learned collecting such a international superstar there will always be heavy competition for high end cards, so get what you can get and move forward.... With all that being said, I was able to grab an incredible amount of parallels and variations in the 2012 set including the very rare ssp chrome card that I wrote about in the past along with many parallels and all the other sp's. Over the last 4 years I was able to get every one of these parallels except for 2..... One is the atomic chrome /10 which popped on the market 2 years ago and I was out bid even though I padded my max bid by over $100 to ensure I would win. Guess that still wasn't enough! The other is the infamous chrome sepia /75. You would think a chrome /75 wouldn't be so difficult right? Wrong! I have 10x black parallels /100, 5x Gold /50 and even 2x Red /25 but I literally searched for this sepia /75 for 4 years and asked friends and acquaintances to search for it as well and offered to overpay or overtrade for it if needed to have it in my hands. Even with such offers, no one could fine one. Year after year, not one has surfaced. It became a running joke. I've accumulated a massive collection of high end Ichiro's cards and rare 1/1's of other players yet I couldn't find this sepia. My white whale.
Fast forward to last week and while doing my daily search for the sepia on ebay (yes, I have a problem, couldn't you tell?) it suddenly surfaced. I was in so much shock, I couldn't believe if it was real. I was praying it would be a Buy It Now to end the suspense that second and thank goodness it was. Many fist pumps later I anxiously waited a week for it to arrive now worrying if it will be lost in the mail. No drama there, it arrived safely and I haven't been happier in my collecting life. Couple days later the mini white whale of the atomic somehow shows up on ebay as well. Same story as above and I grabbed that card as well. Somehow lightning struck twice in a week span. Unreal luck!
The Hobby is about the joy of collecting, searching for cards that make you happy and celebrating your favorite players. Yes, I show off high end cards constantly on twitter & forums and enjoy seeing other big time cards from fellow collectors but it's these big battles and goals with cards with little cash value and high sentimental value that mean more in my humble opinion. To some collecting is a business which is totally fine, they trade, flip and sale all day long. For myself its purely a hobby and for the joy of collecting and keeping my cards. It's my escape from a stressful career and the day to day activities of life. Thanks for reading if you somehow got this far.
The White Whale! The Sepia!!!!!
The Atomic!
