I have been struggling for some reason with depression. I don't think it is deep, but frustrating nonetheless. The worst thing about it is I always wonder "what will I do when something truly bad happens?" Seriously, I have it great. Sure, life has its challenges, but I have a business I built myself, we are in a very good position, have a roof over our head, are content to live simply and are in good health.
My mom sent me this link: http://slate.com/blogs/blogs/happinessproject/archive/2009/01/27/recipe-for-happiness-wrestling-with-toddlers-and-reading-thich-nhat-hanh.aspx?GT1=38001 - it was a very good read, and said 2 interesting things.
1) Running helps chase the blues away. I found this out myself first hand a few days ago. Mega down, then ran 6 miles, and came back feeling awesome!
2) Depression is often caused by thinking about the past or future. What an interesting concept - just think about now ... live in the present!
I liked that, bookmarked the link and hope to remember what it said next time the blues get to me.
Tonight, my wife decided to mention that it was time for me to stop cutting weight and start bulking. I said I wanted to get down to 165, which means I have about 10 more lbs to go. She said I was getting too skinny and "boney". Apparently, I am not as comfortable as my former pudgy self was. We will see! I never thought I would have heard her say this before in my life! Time to get on the horn with my friend tomorrow to see if we can start lifting weights together, I suppose!
Today was not a day for sadness anyway though. I sold $100 worth of baseball cards from the $400 collection I bought with jerseys in it, someone is supposed to buy one of the jerseys for $125 and another is supposed to buy the rest of the sets for $200. That would put me up $25 on the collection and have 5 jerseys for free basically.
Also had someone say that I can consider my collection I bought for $15 the other day sold at $75, though I offered some more for $125 total. We shall see! The person who is coming over tomorrow (supposedly - they ARE from craig's list!) for the $200 sets, may take out a bunch of my boxes I bought today. Which brings me to my next deal ...
I bought the 161 boxes of cards today! It was a long drive, but I think it was worth it. I hope to sell 100 of them for $400 and open the other 61 myself (I paid $350 total for everything). I really struggled about whether i should just re-sell it all, or open the others. I decided to open (for now at least) because I am in this for a HOBBY, and not a business. Re-selling the ones I wanted before I open them would not allow for this to be as fun for me.
Now, the biggie ...
This deal has been in the works for a while now. After selling all year, I basically had a nice collection left over to myself for basically free. I posted it up for $3,000, and my dealer friend saw it. We were able to strike a deal. 99% of my collection for 2.3 million of his sports cards and $600 cash! It took a while for me to figure if I wanted to do this or not, but after thinking it over, I was all for it! He just emailed me saying he was just tickled with how good the collection he got off me was. I am super pleased too. I just went through 2 boxes and was very happy with what was in them so far.
I know, this is probably super boring for folks who aren't into cards. I promise, I won't be like this always. I am just on cloud 9 right now!
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Twilight Zone & Hobby Happiness
Yesterday, it seemed as though we entered some sort of strange and twisted twilight zone. A time when our son was acting bad and our daughter was acting good...well, for the most part. No, my boy didn't want any part of schooling yesterday (you must be thinking to yourself, why would they homeschool on Christmas break? - Well, that's how we roll.) and was just throwing fits / being very slow, etc. I hated to have to do this, but for the second time in his life, we had to take away ALL of his toys until he can be a good boy again. He has been cranky / whiny / slow to obedience and I miss my good boy! It hurts to have to go that far, but discipline must be strong enough to get his attention. I will tell you this though, it is much better than rushing your daughter to the emergency room because we thought she was choking! That happened on Sunday. Never a dull moment in our household, indeed...
The past few weeks have been rather slow from a work standpoint, which has been nice in some respect. I guess it is always like this at the end of the year, which is nice because I have a break, but a bummer because it gives me more time to worry about stuff.
I have been focusing more on fitness, and that is one of the main things I am proud of myself for in 2009 - having lost 55 lbs since April, and over 100lbs since 2003. I say this because last night we went out to eat for the 2nd time in 4 days. I decided against running afterwards because it was too cold and this morning because I was too ... unmotivated, but I was able to get a bit of a workout in doing some chinups, pushups and situps. Hey, better something than nothing!
Speaking of going out to eat last night, it was a great time to catch up with some friends in town from Dallas. I loved it! A wonderful time to unwind, catch up and relax. Praise the Lord for good friends. Now, if only we had more and were able to get out more with people. I have been able to do this a few times over the past several weeks, but it just still isn't enough.
Over the past few weeks, I have been able to do some great deals as far as sports cards and memorabilia go. I met a woman at Whataburger (and no, I didn't eat there...saved from the clutches of the mighty tasty A1 Thick & Hearty Burger!) to buy some 1960's/70's sports cards from her to help her get money to help bail her boyfriend out of jail for Christmas. It wasn't the deal of the century, but for $15 I got several hundred older cards, which included about 20 keepers - 4 Griffey Sr. rc's, some older Nolan Ryan a Gary Carter rookie & some other good stuff. I hope to get rid of the rest of them for a bit more than I paid and keep the cards I mentioned above.
After the previously mentioned emergency room experience, I packed up the fam and headed down the road to meet with a guy that had a collection of autographed jerseys and several complete sets. My friend who is a dealer alerted me to this - he wanted $600 but I talked him down to $400. What a deal, let me tell you! I got autographed jerseys of Roger Clemens, Shaquille O'neal, Yao Ming, Steve Francis, Clyde Drexler and Earl Campbell. Not to mention a 74-75 WHA OPC Hockey set that sells for $90, a 78-79 Topps Hockey set, 81-82 Topps Hockey Set, 78-79 Topps basketball set, 89-90 Hoops basketball set, 82 Topps Football set, 83, 84 & 85 Topps baseball sets & 85 & 86 fleer baseball sets. 99% of the other sets mentioned sell for $20-$30 each. It is my hope to rid myself of all the non-baseball cards + the Francis / Campbell & Drexler jerseys to keep the Yao / Clemens / Shaq autographed jerseys & baseball cards.
Tomorrow, I am looking forward to a long drive to sugarland to meet with a guy who has 161 unopened boxes of baseball cards for $350. Here is the inventory list:
1986 Donruss-4 wax boxes
1987 Donruss 24 wax boxes
1989 Donruss 8 wax boxes
1987 Topps 14 wax boxes
1989 Fleer 9 wax boxes
1989 Bowman 20 wax boxes
1991 Upper Deck 2 wax boxes
1988 Donruss 5 wax boxes
1988 Donruss "Baseball's Best" 3 sets
1991 Conlon 1 wax box
1988 Topps "Big Baseball" 11 boxes (4-1st series)(3-2nd series)(4-3rd series)
1989 Topps 6 wax boxes
1990 Fleer 17 wax boxes
1988 Score 7 "Premier Edition" factory sealed sets
1988 Topps 8 wax boxes
1988 Score 15 wax boxes
1990 Upper Deck 5 wax boxes
1986 Topps "Leaders" 1 wax box
1990 "Sport Flics" 1 wax box
= Total 161 boxes
The first 6 lines on the list, I plan of bust open myself and sell the rest to hopefully break even. What fun to open 59-79 wax boxes!
The past few weeks have been rather slow from a work standpoint, which has been nice in some respect. I guess it is always like this at the end of the year, which is nice because I have a break, but a bummer because it gives me more time to worry about stuff.
I have been focusing more on fitness, and that is one of the main things I am proud of myself for in 2009 - having lost 55 lbs since April, and over 100lbs since 2003. I say this because last night we went out to eat for the 2nd time in 4 days. I decided against running afterwards because it was too cold and this morning because I was too ... unmotivated, but I was able to get a bit of a workout in doing some chinups, pushups and situps. Hey, better something than nothing!
Speaking of going out to eat last night, it was a great time to catch up with some friends in town from Dallas. I loved it! A wonderful time to unwind, catch up and relax. Praise the Lord for good friends. Now, if only we had more and were able to get out more with people. I have been able to do this a few times over the past several weeks, but it just still isn't enough.
Over the past few weeks, I have been able to do some great deals as far as sports cards and memorabilia go. I met a woman at Whataburger (and no, I didn't eat there...saved from the clutches of the mighty tasty A1 Thick & Hearty Burger!) to buy some 1960's/70's sports cards from her to help her get money to help bail her boyfriend out of jail for Christmas. It wasn't the deal of the century, but for $15 I got several hundred older cards, which included about 20 keepers - 4 Griffey Sr. rc's, some older Nolan Ryan a Gary Carter rookie & some other good stuff. I hope to get rid of the rest of them for a bit more than I paid and keep the cards I mentioned above.
After the previously mentioned emergency room experience, I packed up the fam and headed down the road to meet with a guy that had a collection of autographed jerseys and several complete sets. My friend who is a dealer alerted me to this - he wanted $600 but I talked him down to $400. What a deal, let me tell you! I got autographed jerseys of Roger Clemens, Shaquille O'neal, Yao Ming, Steve Francis, Clyde Drexler and Earl Campbell. Not to mention a 74-75 WHA OPC Hockey set that sells for $90, a 78-79 Topps Hockey set, 81-82 Topps Hockey Set, 78-79 Topps basketball set, 89-90 Hoops basketball set, 82 Topps Football set, 83, 84 & 85 Topps baseball sets & 85 & 86 fleer baseball sets. 99% of the other sets mentioned sell for $20-$30 each. It is my hope to rid myself of all the non-baseball cards + the Francis / Campbell & Drexler jerseys to keep the Yao / Clemens / Shaq autographed jerseys & baseball cards.
Tomorrow, I am looking forward to a long drive to sugarland to meet with a guy who has 161 unopened boxes of baseball cards for $350. Here is the inventory list:
1986 Donruss-4 wax boxes
1987 Donruss 24 wax boxes
1989 Donruss 8 wax boxes
1987 Topps 14 wax boxes
1989 Fleer 9 wax boxes
1989 Bowman 20 wax boxes
1991 Upper Deck 2 wax boxes
1988 Donruss 5 wax boxes
1988 Donruss "Baseball's Best" 3 sets
1991 Conlon 1 wax box
1988 Topps "Big Baseball" 11 boxes (4-1st series)(3-2nd series)(4-3rd series)
1989 Topps 6 wax boxes
1990 Fleer 17 wax boxes
1988 Score 7 "Premier Edition" factory sealed sets
1988 Topps 8 wax boxes
1988 Score 15 wax boxes
1990 Upper Deck 5 wax boxes
1986 Topps "Leaders" 1 wax box
1990 "Sport Flics" 1 wax box
= Total 161 boxes
The first 6 lines on the list, I plan of bust open myself and sell the rest to hopefully break even. What fun to open 59-79 wax boxes!
Monday, December 28, 2009
Gee Whiz, Wally! Look - my very own blog!
My wife has had a few blogs for over a year now and is just wonderful. It speaks of how great of a person she is. I have debated so often about if I should start one myself or not. Welp, I guess this is me starting!
If you know my wife (her blogs are at http://kyrgyzadoptionstory.blogspot.com/ and http://jonesdailynews.blogspot.com/ ), you will quickly find out that she is a much deeper person than I am. She will write about orphans, helping people, how our family is doing, various ministries, etc. Talk about intimidating when it comes to writing about things myself!
So, let me start off with an intro, as you may not know me. My name is Tanner. I love Jesus, am married to the woman of my dreams and we have 2 kids - 1 bio and 1 adopted. They both keep our lives hopping. Without them, I can honestly say that I think life would be dull! Holly will probably say the same.
I own my own website development company - http://www.tannercreative.com/ that has been around for about 10 years now. Business is hopping, (DANG IT!!! I said hopping twice already...ok...no more) in spite of the economy badness that has been going on over the past year. I was going to be all professional and use tannercreative.blogspot.com but wanted a blog for my personal thoughts and feared that all my clients would leave me after finding out how nutso I am. :)
Being the left handed / right brained person that I am, I have many interests and hobbies. I enjoy cars, baseball cards, mixed martial arts, entreprenuerial ventures, movies, aliens/ufo's, good tv shows (I have a laundry list of them I enjoy, which I am ashamed to admit!), running, banana trees, things made out of clay that look like they are made out of silk, saying "sammiches" instead of "sandwiches", the gratuitous use of "y'all" and cheesecake.
The things that drive me CRAZY are inconsiderate drivers, Ashton Kutcher, people calling me buddy (which btw, does not give you a license to call me buddy when you read this - I will, much to your chagrin, not even flinch...though I may be grinding my teeth!), popsicle sticks inside my mouth (wood should never, ever go in someone's mouth, ever), when the cushions on the couch are not where they should be, the gratuitous use of "like" and cheesecake. Oh yeah - murderers, thiefs, etc. too.
That is me in a nutshell - and now you know I am truly a nut!
P.S. I don't actually hate the word "like". I just felt like using that to, like, totally, like, balance the love/hate paragraphs....like.
If you know my wife (her blogs are at http://kyrgyzadoptionstory.blogspot.com/ and http://jonesdailynews.blogspot.com/ ), you will quickly find out that she is a much deeper person than I am. She will write about orphans, helping people, how our family is doing, various ministries, etc. Talk about intimidating when it comes to writing about things myself!
So, let me start off with an intro, as you may not know me. My name is Tanner. I love Jesus, am married to the woman of my dreams and we have 2 kids - 1 bio and 1 adopted. They both keep our lives hopping. Without them, I can honestly say that I think life would be dull! Holly will probably say the same.
I own my own website development company - http://www.tannercreative.com/ that has been around for about 10 years now. Business is hopping, (DANG IT!!! I said hopping twice already...ok...no more) in spite of the economy badness that has been going on over the past year. I was going to be all professional and use tannercreative.blogspot.com but wanted a blog for my personal thoughts and feared that all my clients would leave me after finding out how nutso I am. :)
Being the left handed / right brained person that I am, I have many interests and hobbies. I enjoy cars, baseball cards, mixed martial arts, entreprenuerial ventures, movies, aliens/ufo's, good tv shows (I have a laundry list of them I enjoy, which I am ashamed to admit!), running, banana trees, things made out of clay that look like they are made out of silk, saying "sammiches" instead of "sandwiches", the gratuitous use of "y'all" and cheesecake.
The things that drive me CRAZY are inconsiderate drivers, Ashton Kutcher, people calling me buddy (which btw, does not give you a license to call me buddy when you read this - I will, much to your chagrin, not even flinch...though I may be grinding my teeth!), popsicle sticks inside my mouth (wood should never, ever go in someone's mouth, ever), when the cushions on the couch are not where they should be, the gratuitous use of "like" and cheesecake. Oh yeah - murderers, thiefs, etc. too.
That is me in a nutshell - and now you know I am truly a nut!
P.S. I don't actually hate the word "like". I just felt like using that to, like, totally, like, balance the love/hate paragraphs....like.
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