Years Have Gone By

Sometime within the past few years, I entered the second half of my teaching career and for the first time ever I've started to take a peek down the road and think about retirement.  It's still at least twelve, thirteen, heck... maybe even fifteen years away... but the past twenty-one years in the classroom have sure flown by.  

As for the blog, today it's celebrating its 9th anniversary and much like my real job, the years have been a blur.

 2009 Heritage Clubhouse Collection #'s CC-KS and CC-AG

To put things into perspective, back in March of 2010, Kurt Suzuki was still with my beloved Athletics and Adrian Gonzalez was the brightest star on my other favorite team.

Dang it seems like years have gone by... and it has.

I can't even begin to calculate how many hours I've dedicated to this blog.  Sadly... I don't think my friends and family outside of the collecting world will ever truly appreciate the energy I've put into this blog.

But anyone out there who runs a blog him/herself understands that although this gig might be therapeutic and a passion we choose to impose upon ourselves, it's still takes time and a lot of dedication.  That's why I wanted to say that I truly appreciate everyone who takes the time to blog about their collectibles and/or the hobby.

I'd also like to thank all of you who take a few minutes out of your busy schedules to read my posts and comment.  I'd like to think that I would continue to write regardless of my viewership, but I'm not going to lie... the interaction between us has kept me motivated more times that I'd like to admit.

In return, I'm going to run my 2nd contest of 2019.  It's simple to enter...

If you have a blog, cut and paste a link to your blog down below so that others can appreciate your hard work.  If you don't have a blog, then go ahead and share the link to one (or more) of your favorite blogs.  Who knows?  Maybe we'll all be able to add one or two new blogs to our reading list or blogroll.

What's the prize?  In the spirit of this blog's 9th anniversary, I'll give away a custom built 9-pocket page care package to three different winners.  Depending on your favorite teams/players, I will try my best to include at least one autograph and one memorabilia card.  The other slots will contain inserts, parallels, and possibly some rookie cards.

The Fine Print:  I'll keep the contest open for one week (closes on March 9th @ 3pm).  After that, I'll throw all contest entries into random.org and hit randomize 9 times.  Whoever is sitting in slots 3, 6, and 9 will be declared the winners.  Winners will be announced next Saturday.

See?  Pretty simple, right? 

Thanks again for all of your support.  Happy Saturday and sayonara!