Bidding Under the Influence #9

Date: September 4, 2021

Time of Bid: 2:57:53 AM

Card: 1959 Topps #46 Camille Henry

Price: $1.25 (+$0.51 shipping)

What Was I Thinking?:

Well, this might be the first card in this series that I overpaid for.  When it's nearly 3:00 in the morning, decision-making skills aren't what you'd call "sharp."  This thing looks like it spent 30 years in the driver's-side sun visor of a Quebecois taxi cab, or jammed down the front of Dino Bravo's trunks for luck during big matches.  One or the other.

You can read about Henry here, but you probably won't.  Let me share the best part: His playing style earned him the nickname Camile "The Eel."  Not bad.

There's quite a bit of ink missing from the back of this card, but the cartoon referee accompanying the trivia question makes up for it.  The stick of dynamite is a nice touch, even though there's no real basis for its inclusion anywhere on the card.

This is now the oldest hockey card in my possession.  Calling it a collection would be too generous, more just a bunch of things that I managed to acquire over the years. 

Bidding Under the Influence #8

Date: August 10, 2021

Time of Bid: 10:54:22 PM

Card: 1977 Topps Star Wars Series 3 #153 The fantastic droid Threepio!

Price: $0.01 (+ $0.69 shipping)

What Was I Thinking?:

While this is not my first '77 Star Wars card, it's the first series 3 yellow border one I've ever owned.  Yellow cards are a weakness of mine.  Chalk it up to biology.  Did you know that the human eye seeks out yellow first when looking at an array of colors?  Maybe that's why I always rush to the defense of 1991 Fleer.  And those 1984 Topps Nestle premium cards?  Turn those into a fluffy textile pattern, cloak me in its warmth, and spank my bottom.

The penny auction price was a nice bonus.  Even in a PWE, the seller is clearing almost nothing on a sale like this.  The volume has to be staggering in order to eke out a living at that rate.  Best of luck to phillysportsstore and their business model.  They're doing God's work.  As for C-3PO, he's grown on me over the past 40 years or so.  He's constantly thrown into battle in a conflict he couldn't give two shits about, and he's ill-equipped to handle any sort of combat.  The poor guy had to spend the second half of ESB in 15 pieces in a JanSport strapped to Chewbacca's back.  Then in the next movie, Salacious Crumb nibbled his eye out of his socket, an eye that he didn't lose completely due to the robotic equivalent of the optic nerve keeping it from rolling into Jabba's liquid taint stench puddle.  Cut the android some slack.