1. Move to Oregon and drive up housing prices.
2. Can't drive.
3. Are selfish.
4. Aren't eco-friendly.
5. Complain too much.
6. Compare everything to California.
Well... I've lived my entire life in California and absolutely love it. But I'm not going to lie... I can totally see how some of us fit the stereotype painted above.
Two weeks ago I tried to represent California in the most positive light possible when I hung out with my friends in Portland.
During my stay... I didn't buy any houses. I didn't cut anyone off. I was met with excellent customer service at every place we went to... and whenever I paid... I left generous tips to show my appreciation. I recycled my SmartWater bottles and picked up my trash wherever we went. I had only positive things to say about the beautiful city, the friendly people, and the delicious food. And I made zero comparisons to California.
Unfortunately... I couldn't take six steps forward without taking one huge step back. The amazing people of Oregon can officially add one more complaint to the list:
7. Californians snatch up blaster boxes on their vacations.
I've been watching people show off their Stadium Club and Allen & Ginter breaks throughout the blogosphere... and I haven't seen a single blaster sitting on the Target shelves in my area. So when my friend had to purchase a few items at her local Target, I immediately made a beeline towards the card section. To my delight, I found four A&G blasters and a bunch of Stadium Club blasters just waiting to be purchased.
I thought about snatching up more Stadium Club, but decided against it to conserve luggage space and my hobby budget. Plus I didn't want to come off as being too greedy. The last thing I want to do is annoy Oregon card collectors, since I'll be traveling there at least once or twice a year from this point going forward.
While I'm confessing my sins to Oregon collectors, I might as well as keep it real with the good people of Nevada too.
After spending a week in Oregon, I went down to Las Vegas to see my parents and purchased these 2018 Topps Chrome blaster boxes. The Target down the street from Red Rock Casino had at least ten of these sitting on their shelves. I grabbed the first three and left the rest for local collectors.
In hindsight... spending $140+ on seven blasters is kind of ridiculous. I could have picked up a few more key cards for my collection instead.
However... it's fun to bust open some packs every now and then, plus it never hurts to be able to throw in some newer product into care packages.
This post is already starting to drag out, so I'll go ahead and show off the highlights from these boxes in a future post. There were a handful of cards I was pretty excited to pull. Here's one of them:
2018 Allen & Ginter Framed Relic #FMR-BP
Another one was an autographed rookie card that's currently fetching just under $100 on eBay, but I'll save that one for later.
To all of my readers living in Oregon and Nevada, I apologize for coming into your states and buying up your beloved blasters. Feel free to come down to the Bay Area and visit. I'll give you first dibs at the local card shows and flea markets as payback.
Happy Monday and sayonara!
11 comments:
There are a lot more reasons why Oregonians don't like Californians, but since I don't wish to insult anyone, I'll leave some of those other reasons unsaid. Just remember, the term "Californication" was not coined because of our great love for our neighbors to the south.
Also, despite what anyone might tell you, Portland is not a baseball town, therefor there's always a couple of places that are overstocked with baseball cards, so next time you're there don't feel too guilty about buying as much as you want... after all, somebody's got to.
I was hoping to see a Californians SNL skit!
And there is no tax in Oregon so you can’t even contribute to their tax coffers. Way to go Fuji, pilfering and plundering. Ha! I have many fond memories of Oregon...and none of them involved Californians. Haha!
Idahoans make a lot of similar complaints about Californian transplants. I think it's just a convenient way to lump people you don't like into an 'other' category. If someone cuts you off in traffic, they must be a Californian. If someone is rude to you, they must be one of those Californians. If your kid starts doing drugs or tagging overpasses, he must have been influenced by those Californians coming in with their loose morals and big-city attitudes.
Can’t be as bad as what Texans say about Californians... ;-)
Curious to what the autograph will be...
Yeah, I've been busting blasters the last few weeks too. It is very expensive.
I have in California since 1972,you can have Portland ,it's full of rain and homeless people.
Did you pull an Acuna??? If so, and if you aren't looking to keep it, can we try and work something out? :D
If you got any Cardinals, you totally stole them from me! I would have bought those blasters!
jon - sad to hear there's a lot more reasons oregonians hate californians, but glad to hear i have free reign to buy more blasters on my next trip ;)
the lost collector - lol. those are awesome
sumomenkoman - that's what i do. pilfer and plunder :)
raz - idaho too? i'm okay with california being the scapegoat if it makes the world a better place
j. meeks - lol. i can only imagine
sport card collectors & matt stupienski - it's a yankee
john miller - being a "hit" collector, blasters usually just quench my pack fix. but i actually pulled four hits out of seven blasters. i was hoping to pull just one
sg488 - i actually love the rain. as for homeless people, they're all over san jose as well.
madding - stay tuned to find out ;)
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