Real Heroes and Silly Times

When it comes to blogging, I've been kinda in a funk.  It stems from Blogger's recent issues with sharing our posts on reading lists.  Thankfully a few of you shared the TCDB blogroll... which is an excellent companion to the Blogger reading list.  Combined they have pretty much resolved the issue, but I'm not sure all of the wrinkles have been ironed out.

I caught my first bug of the school year and ended up taking yesterday and today off.  Figured I'd get back into blogger mode and write something... since I'm just laying around with DayQuil flowing through my body.

The past week or two, I've had anniversaries on my mind and they're all tied to 2001.  Here are a few cards that are related to each of them.  Let's start with the obligatory baseball card:

This might not feature a baseball player, but it features the 1988 Topps baseball card design:

2009 Topps Heritage American Heroes #49

Two weeks ago marked the 25th anniversary of 9/11.  That dreadful day David Lim was working at the World Trade Center with his K-9 partner, Sirius.

When the towers were struck, Lim secured Sirius in his kennel before rushing to the aid of others.  Although he survived, Sirius tragically did not.  If interested, you can read more about it here.  And if you're interested, here's an interview with Mr. Lim I found on YouTube where he discusses that morning.

I have heard plenty of definitions of what it means to be a "hero".  I've gotta imagine David Lim and Sirius fit most, if not all of them.

Two days before 9/11, HBO released the first two episodes of Band of Brothers.

2009 Topps Heritage American Heroes

American Heroism Relic #AH-WWII7

If you've never watched it, it's a miniseries that tells the story of Easy Company, 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division.  Simply put, it's one of favorite television shows of all-time.

HBO is celebrating the 25th anniversary of this show, so I decided to rewatch all ten episodes over the past two weeks.  World War II was before my time, but this show gives people a tiny peek into what some soldiers faced in Europe.  It's also a reminder that love trumps hate... and that we as a society should avoid war as much as possible.

2001 Wizards of the Coast Harry Potter #8

Gonna wrap things up with one more anniversary from 2001.  Back in August of 2001, Wizards of the Coast released their first Harry Potter TCG set.  I'm going to guess that most of you could care less about this.

However while laying in bed yesterday, I had YouTube playing in the background.  One of the videos mentioned these cards, which reminded me of a purchase I made ten years ago at the Santa Cruz Flea Market.  I wouldn't call myself a Harry Potter fanatic, but I did enjoy the eight movies.  And at the time, I figured $5 for a box of cards was a great deal.

2002 WOTC Harry Potter Chamber of Secrets #28

2002 WOTC Harry Potter Diagon Alley #26

2001 WOTC Harry Potter Quidditch Cup #11

2002 WOTC Harry Potter Adventures at Hogwarts #13

Well recently fans of the franchise (or maybe the game) have rediscovered this forgotten TCG and this has sent some of the singles soaring in sales over on eBay.  We're talking about triple digits for raw, completed sales.

I don't know much about this game, but it looks like this Albus Dumbledore is the Harry Potter version of Charizard:

2002 WOTC Harry Potter Adventures at Hogwarts #1

 

Last Saturday, an ungraded copy sold for over $1000 on eBay.  If you happen to have any singles from this game, you might want to dig them out.  These are silly times... especially in regards to trading cards.

Okay... I'd better heat up another bowl of chicken noodle soup and finish catching up on some of your blog posts.

Happy Friday and sayonara!