Johnny’s longshot to win the Open Championship.

It is one of the best weeks of the year. By that I mean it the Open Championship. It is not the British Open as we Americans tend to call it. This is THE OPEN. Sorry Ohio State, this is the only event that deserves to use the word THE before itself.

Why such strong feelings about this glorious golf tournament? The Open has been around the longest. It all started in Scotland in 1860 at Prestwick Golf Club. The first playing of the tournament was restricted to professionals, (mainly who were caddies, greens keepers, club makers or ball makers by trade) and attracted a field of eight who played three rounds of Prestwick’s twelve-hole course in a single day. The winning score of 174, was shot by Willie Park Sr. who beat Old Tom Morris by two strokes. The following year the tournament was opened to amateurs; eight of them joined ten professionals in the field to make a huge field of 18, and the Open Championship was on its way. Before this time golf had been played and some club tournaments had taken place, but more often than not Match Play was the rule and Money Matches between top professionals from various clubs were often played before and after the actual Open Championship itself.

Royal Lytham and St Annes Golf Club

This year we go to the great course Royal Lytham & St Anne’s.  The Open was last played here when David Duval won it and was still a force to be reckoned with on the PGA tour. Royal Lytham & St. Annes is not your typical seaside links golf course that is the norm for most Open Championships. This is the only course in the current Open rotation which begins with a par 3 golf hole. (this is unusual for any golf course actually, but it is something more frequently seen on the elder courses in Scotland, Ireland and the British Isles). Another unusual quirk is that the golf course has 3 par 3’s on the front 9, and just one on the back.

A lot of spectators can even get a front row seat for this one….from their houses! This is another rarity in Open golf courses in that there are residences on three sides of the golf course.

The venue has not hosted too many Open Championships when compared to places such as St Andrews, but the former champion list is quite impressive. Bobby Jones, Bobby Locke, Peter Thompson, Bob Charles, Tony Jacklin, Gary Player, Severino Ballesteros, Tom Lehman and David Duval. Of this list, only Lehman and Duval are not members of the World Golf Hall of Fame.

155 players tee it up this weekend. Many of those golfers in the field are people that even devout golf aficionados have any knowledge of. There are some European and Asian Tour players that will test your meddle in name pronunciation.

Tongue twisters such as Pryad Marksaeng, Joost Luiten, Mardan Marmat, Thongchai Jaidee, and Rafa Echenique will keep Ivor Robson on his toes while he announces the players to the first tee.

The set up seems fair, but unlike some Open sites, there is an extra premium on driving the golf ball. The rough, off of the fairways is exceptionally tall and thick this year on the heels of what is even by British standards, extra rainy conditions.

Attending the tournament in person is still one of the best deals in golf. Last I checked you could get a week long pass to watch all of the action for basically the equivalent of $250- $300 USD. Try getting in for that for the entire week at the Masters!

As always set your alarm early and get up to watch the quirky holes, bad bounces, lucky bounces, horrible lies, strong winds, maybe even rain, and weather that can change faster than it takes Kevin Na to play one golf hole.

The Open is golf at its finest. Golf as it was meant to be played – over sand dunes, humps and hollows -not on overwatered and perfectly manicured greens, fairways, bunkers and tee boxes.

My pick this week – Tiger Woods. He needs to get off the snide and win another major. He seems to play pretty well when under the gun. He will be under a lot of scrutiny with unsubtle British media – especially if he is in the hunt…I think he will respond well this time.

Looking for some random candidates? Here is a short list for your fantasy golf pools – Sam Walker – Barry Lane – Greg Owen and Paul Broadhorst.

Longshot to win it? Francesco Molinari – he played well last week at the Scottish Open, might be his time to break out and win something big.

Until Next Time, Stay Classy North Berwick, Scotland

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SOLD!

This is the third installment in my series involving the building of our new home.

This past weekend we sold our existing house. It was on the market for about 7 weeks.

The previous two times I have sold homes they have been sold very fast (both in under 20 days). I was getting a little nervous as we had a ton of people look at the home, but had not been able to sell it. A few weeks back we received an offer that that was pretty strange but thought we had it sold…and then at the last minute with negotiating the prospective seller pulled the plug on the deal and then proceeded to start making comments on why they did not want the house in the first place.

Rule #1 of selling a home…Don’t make it personal.

For about 2 days I was pretty ticked off about this first deal falling through. “if you didn’t like these things about my house why did you make an offer in the first place” was my thinking! I will freely admit I was mad. But after some smooth talking by my wife and more reasonable thinking, I figured out that this was likely a bad offer anyway. They had strange need for cash at closing some weird clauses and oddly constructed contingencies of moving into the house and closing on it. In the end it was best that this did not work out at all.

Rule #2 of selling a home – Hey Realtor – Don’t make it personal to the clients!

– Rule #1 in my case could have been avoided altogether if not only the prospective buyers realtor but also my realtor would have NOT mentioned these “personal feelings” at the time the other party decided to not proceed with their offer. All this did was escalate my blood pressure and since they had walked away from their initial offer on our home, it really didn’t matter what they thought about my house anyway.

Rule #3 of Selling a home – Being the Bridesmaid is a GOOD thing!

We had another family that came to our house 2 times in 2 days. They stayed and looked at our place for a LONNNNG time each time they were there. We found out that they ultimately decided to go with another house. Instead of being disappointed, I was excited! Even though we did not get a potential sale, it told me that obviously our house was in the running which meant it was just a matter of time before we found a buyer.

Rule #4 – It happens when you least expect it.

We were going to have an open house on Sunday. We had a showing on Friday and another on Saturday, and had an offer by 3 pm on Saturday afternoon. It was a good offer, near full price and was clean as a whistle. In the end this is all I could have hoped for.

Now my family begins the arduous task of needing to move into an apartment in the interim while our new home is being built. They are breaking ground on our new house as we speak, and it is anticipated to be completed in mid-November. The people buying our home have a closing date with us that is less than a month away!

In the meantime, more of our household contents is off to the storage unit, and the daily necessities such as beds, living room furniture, clothes, pots pans, my sons toys and of course our beloved dog – Max- are off to the pet friendly apartment we will call home for the next 4 ½ months. On the bright side the apartment we are moving into is close to where we live, and has a pool, and a small stream…pool will be good for me.

Until next time, Stay classy Overland Park Kansas.

Omaha, the NEW Sports Mecca!

Before any of you accuse me of being a homer, and writing about the city to the east of my hometown of Lincoln, Nebraska, let me set the record straight.

I am really not a fan of Omaha. Compared to Lincoln it has a HUGE amount of crime. Many people there have what I would call the quasi East Coast Attitude.

They are the biggest city, their news is the only important news, the rest of the state is…well…hicks so to speak.

Even the Omaha TV meteorologists do not make mention of any storms hitting the rest of Nebraska. But once the storms are close to their beloved Omaha then it is a Major weather event…even if the storms have left major hail, tornados and feet of rain and snow in their wake.

Now that we are past my dislike of the Republic of Omaha, let’s focus on the positives.

The College World Series

Robert Refsnyder of 2012 champion Arizona.

Each year Omaha hosts two sporting events that are incredibly well received. The main crown jewel in the Sports Scepter is the College World Series. It has been an institution in the Big O for many many years. ESPN came aboard and blew the CWS to a whole new level. They even held so much power over almighty Omaha that a new baseball part was built right in the downtown area. This of course was to provide a bunch of extra income to the downtown area, and to also keep all of the drunk drivers off of the roads driving from Rosenblatt Stadium to the downtown area. Now, all of the inebriated people at the CWS just walk back to their hotel instead. (if you don’t believe me, check out the surrounding area next year during the CWS at about 11 PM on any game night)

The Cox Classic

2011 Cox Champion J.J. Killeen

The Nationwide Tour also hosts the Cox Classic in Omaha every year. This tournament is held at the Champions Club, and is viewed by most of the Nationwide tour players as the best event they have all year.

Volunteers turn out in droves to come and help make the Cox Classic a success. The prize money payout is one of the largest on the Nationwide Tour. But the real fun starts after the tournament is over each and every day. Once the golfers are off the greens, the parties start at a number of designated events at the golf course. These parties go late into the night and are known to be the favorites of the locals and the tournament players and staff alike.

I am sure in large part that the success of this tournament has led Omaha to host the 2013 United States Senior Open Championship. Omaha Country Club will be the site of that tournament and I am sure it will be attended by huge masses of people.

U.S. Olympic Swimming Trials

He’s back!

The Olympic trials for the swimming events is being held as we speak at the Qwest Center in Omaha (conveniently located basically right next door to TD Ameritrade Park where the College World Series is now held). This is the second time for this event to be held in Omaha, and with crowds over week to be in excess of 100,000 one could argue that these events are better attended in Omaha than they are at the ACTUAL Olympic Games.

Other Events in Recent Years

Omaha has also been host to NCAA Basketball tournament games earlier this year , and the NCAA Volleyball Championships in the recent years. Omaha is centrally located in the United states so while it might not be close for many it is also not near as bad as travelling coast to coast to go to some of these events.

It has a host of Hotels, has the casino’s and dog races right across the river in Iowa, and let’s face it , Nebraska’s State Motto is “The Good Life” for a reason. The people in the Midwest are nice, sincere, and hardworking.

Now if we could only get the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Omaha…wait…they are coming in 2013 as well.

Until Next Time…Stay Classy Ralston, Nebraska – SOUTHSIDE!!!!
 

 

Caught in the Webb

Does this look like a crack?

My Pick for the US Open last week was …well…not a good one.

Phil Mickelson simply was not on his game, basically not able to hole any putts and missing more fairways than he was hitting.

It did appear that Tiger was on his way to Major #15, but after a bad start on both Saturday and Sunday he faltered and finished tied for 21st.

Jim Furyk looked like he would keep it together and was on his way to winning a 2nd US Open, and pretty much therefore assuring his place eventually in the World Golf Hall of Fame. The pressure seemed too much, he hit some uncharacteristic shots down the stretch and then had to pull off birdieing the last with fellow playing partner Graeme McDowell to force a Monday playoff. Neither of the two were able to birdie the difficult but short 18th – mainly due to an extremely tough pin placement that did not allow for much of a chance to hit it close – and Webb Simpson, walked away with the Nicklaus Medal and the United States Open Trophy.

Who the Heck is Webb Simpson? That is what quite a few of the non-die hard golf fans are asking Sunday night into Monday morning. The guy dresses nice..anytime Ralph Lauren is a sponsor you are going to have some nice digs.

He played golf in college at Wake Forest, he was on the Nationwide tour for a short while, and really came into his own last year winning twice – including the Deutsche Bank Open during the final Fed Ex Cup race. In hindsight, it appears Simpson was poised for a breakthrough this year, much like Keegan Bradley was last year. It just happened sooner than anyone, including Simpson, could imagine. After all, he is only 26 years old.

NBA Playoffs

I guess I shouldn’t tell them that I like Durant Durant.

Game 3 is in the books and the Heat hold a 2-1 advantage. 85% of the time the team that wins game 3 wins the series. While that is an impressive statistic, these teams are very evenly matched – and each create problems for the other. Oklahoma City has proven all year that it is the toughest place in the league to play.

I do get tired of all of the analysts and sports talk figured “over-analyzing” every single thing that takes place in each game. Of course it makes for listeners to your program to have the latest scoop, or to be controversial in your comments. Maybe because I have no real allegiance to any NBA team I seem to read between the lines more so than a rabid NBA fan.

It is comical how some of these “experts” seem to flip back and forth on their opinions on each team or on particular players from game to game.

Regardless, this should be a great week of basketball and then we set off to the dead period of time known as waiting for football season to start. (Kosmo calls this Baseball season)

At least this summer we have the Olympics coming up in England! I will be covering a number of stories on the Olympics once they get started.

Until Next Time, stay classy Springdale, Arkansas

This week the United States Open Golf Championship will be held at the Olympic Club at San Francisco.  There is a lot of anticipation for the event this year as well as a number of stories.

The USGA has released the pairings for the Thursday and Friday rounds, and there are some very attractive made for a Hollywood movie type of three-somes.

First and foremost will be the matinee headliner of Phil Mickelson, Tiger Woods and Masters Champion, Bubba Watson.  Be glad you are at home watching these three because if you were at the tournament I can assure you the gallery size for this triumvirate would parallel the crowd at a Rose Bowl game.

Tiger is the early 5 ½ to 1 favorite with the Vegas odds makers.  This is likely due to his win two weeks ago at Jack’s place – The Memorial. 

Of course we have seen this before this year. Tiger wins at Bay Hill and the world announces “He is Back” then he falters badly and appears not to be able to handle the pressure of a major while playing in the Masters.  Then he looks like the Tiger of old on the weekend at the Memorial. The question remains, will he contend this week.

Buggy anyone?

In Scotland, they are called buggies, but here in the good ol’ USA we call them Golf carts, or even sometimes affectionately – chariots.

Next week during the U.S. Open a name of court cases of a bygone era – Casey Martin again will be riding a cart for the his rounds after, qualifying for tournament.  Martin, who is the Oregon Golf Coach, retired from competitive professional golf six years ago.      

Casey Martin is most known amongst the golf aficionados as the man  who successfully sued the U.S. PGA Tour in 2001 for the right to ride a cart.  Martin suffers from a  because of a degenerative circulatory disorder and has had difficulty walking due to this condition since his teenage years.

I am quite confident NBC will give this significant play again, although it has been more than a decade since this was major news on the golfing front.

Martin did take a cart during local and sectional qualifying and will be allowed the use of a cart during the tournament this week.  His playing companions will not be able to hitch a ride with him between holes. 

Who will win?

Normally a fluke does not with the U.S. Open. It is a tournament with the most severe conditions in terms of deep and thick rough, dry fairways, hard and fast greens, and demonic pin placements.

The person who wins typically is hitting a lot of fairways, is able to control their ball flight, and is playing outstanding around the greens.

This one is on the West Coast, and not many have won more on the left coast than the left hander, I am taking Phil Mickelson.  Plus with the nickname in  GCSSA circles, Flopsy McChokenstien due to a few of his near misses in majors, I am hoping Phil can get the 5 second place monkey off of his back and magically find it this week by the bay. 

Until Next Time, Stay Classy Thermopolis, Wyoming.

The Bear and the Tiger

It was a “could be” storybook headline that ended up having a storybook ending.

Tiger Woods wins his 73rd career PGA sanctioned title at the tournament hosted by none other than the person that he has just tied– Jack Nicklaus.

Muirfield Village in Ohio is a very difficult golf course. Jack in his mind has tried to set up a tournament setting that emulates the Masters Tournament. They honor the giants of the game every year at the Memorial, paying homage to the all-time greats. The membership does not wear the Green Jackets, but they do were some pretty sporty (and I might add decent looking) metal grey jackets and blue dress shirts. The golf course is set up to standards that are very difficult including very fast greens, nasty rough, and demonic pin placements.

This also is the 5th time that Tiger has won this tournament. His high ball flight and ability to work magic around greens works for him very well at the Memorial. Truth be told – this is the best Tiger has looked in some time. He seemed in complete control of his swing, was hitting all of the shots he wanted, and was making a number of putts. By his own account on Sunday he “absolutely was striping it” and by now most of you have seen the incredible hole out late in the round.

This propelled him to an eventually 2 stroke victory, but unfortunately the chip-in is being over-hyped to the nth degree. The fact is that Tiger used to pull these shots with the regularity of vaudeville stage magicians pulling rabbits out of hats. Even Jack has piled on saying “under the circumstances, it is the best golf shot I have ever seen”. Easssssyyyyy Golden Bear. You have made a number of those shots over the years as well…so not sure I would say best ever.

NBA Playoffs

The two remaining series are well underway, and both have the feeling in their own respects of an Ali-Frazier heavyweight fight.

The Spurs and the Thunder have a nice back and forth series going. It is much more the case of the new kid on the block versus the grizzly veteran. It is poise versus athleticism. It is a total chess match of coaching, and it has been fun to watch.

While I have no NBA team allegiance, I must say that the more I watch Kevin Durant, the more impressed I am with how good he really is. I also still can’t believe Tim Duncan is still around. The guy seems like he must be 67 years old.

The Heat and the Celtics appear to be the more physical series based on what I have watched, a lot of fouls, a lot of smack talking both on and off the floor and a lot of crying to officials about getting calls or lack thereof. Wouldn’t it be nice to see the NBA actually officiate a game based on the rules of basketball, thereby forcing each team to play its last 5 bench reserves in an attempt to have anyone left to complete the game. With the hand checking, shoving, elbow throwing, wrestling, grabbing and any other description you can come up with, it is amazing that either team has any players left by halftime.

How I long for the more offensive minded days of Bird, Magic and Dr. J.

Of course the athletes are much stronger and more powerful than those golden days of yore in the NBA. Still the brand of thug-ball that seems to come out in the playoffs is something I could do without having to watch….but of course I am going to watch it anyway!

Until next time, stay classy Ogden, Utah!

My how the mighty have fallen.

This weekend I took in one of my favorite Memorial Day weekend sport related pastimes. I realized a lot has changed since the days of my youth. Of course I am talking about…..

The Indianapolis 500.

I harken back to my younger days, it was on ABC. Of course in those days you did not have 1873 different channels to choose from on cable, or the dish, so on Monday night, you got to watch the Big Race. The entire family got together after a day of running around the yard, and barbecuing to enjoy the air-conditioned living room (typically at my grandparents’ house) and some sugary snacks for me and my cousins. Looking back now I am certain is was some nice down time for the parents and grandparents as well after a long day of chasing us around everywhere.

All of the same names were there, year after year after year. A.J. Foyt, Tom Sneva, Al Unser, Gordon Johncock, Bobby Rahal, Johnny Rutherford….I am sure there are many more, but those are the ones I remember.

You also had the cool sounding team racing names….McLaren and Cosworth sounded rich, chic and mysterious. You didn’t see cars with these names going down the street in your hometown. But you were sure to check out the cool corvette or Camaro that was the pace car for that particular year and it was all painted up and looking sweet!

Jim Nabors signaled that you better get your coke and popcorn ready as he started singing “Back Home Again in Indiana” There were thousands of red, white, and blue balloons released into the air. Even doves on some occasions if memory serves me correctly.

The television coverage was grainy as could be, you had about 4-5 different camera angles and that was pretty much it.

You saw that huge trophy. Wouldn’t it be cool to take that home with you.

There were announcers that you only heard at this event. Of course there was ALWAYS Jim McKay, but then there was also Sam Posey, Jackie Stewart and my personal favorite Chris Economacki.

Even the time trials were a huge event. They took up the weekend coverage the week before the 500. It was pretty much an afternoon devoted to the racing around the 2 mile oval. You got to watch the three laps against the clock, and then hear the announcers break-down their chances for the following week.

You marveled at the guy perched above the finish line waving his flags…green, yellow, white……checkered.

This year the 500 went off with a general malaise of which I cannot ever remember. No big coverage of the time trials, barely a mention on SportsCenter. My local newspaper did not even make it front page of the sports section. Instead it was relegated to about 6 small paragraphs on page #3 of the Sports Section.

NASCAR is much bigger now. The weekend race received front page sports coverage on what used to be considered the biggest racing event in America (with all apologies to the Daytona 500).

Personally, I am not a race fan at all, but for the casual race fan, the demise of the Indianapolis 500 is well underway. All you had to do was look at the stands yesterday. Years ago, the Brickyard was packed to the gills for this race.

Yesterday a lot of race fans evidently dressed up as empty seats. I am sure there will be more fans there for the NASCAR event later this year.

Things are always changin’

Until Next Time, Stay Classy Rutland, Vermont!
 

  

Hitting on a variety of topics this week as there has been a lot going on.

Horse Racing

I’ll Have Another rolled around the track at Pimlico to win the second Jewel of the Triple Crown. We once again have a chance to see a Triple Crown winner as the horse made a huge move down the stretch to catch Bodemeister and get the win by a head in the Preakness Stakes.

Bodemeister is staying home for the final installment of the three big races, so it will be interesting to see who will come and try to spoil the party, as these two horses were WELL clear of the field this past Sunday.

The last horse to win the triple crown was Affirmed in 1978.

Bye Bye L.A.

Showtime gets to go on vacation as they were easily dispatched by the Oklahoma City Thunder in their second round series by a count of 4-1. There is a lot of talk already about players being traded here or there in the offseason. Sadly we also found out what happens in OKC during victory celebrations and 8 people were shot last night in various events following the win.

On the other side of the states, everyone is wondering what is wrong with the Miami Heat. The “Big Three” has not been getting it done, LeBron James has been getting thrown under the bus, Wade has played poorly, and Chris Bosh is injured.  On Sunday, LeBron and Wade exploded for 70 combined points (with some help from Haslem) to get the series back to even, but unless the Heat get back Bosh, it is going to be a large task for them to go any further in the playoffs.  LeBron and Wade cannot win EVERY game on their own. Other players on the squad right now basically can’t hit the ocean falling out of a boat, and the Pacers frankly are a bad personnel match up for the Heat due to their size, especially with no Bosh in the lineup. Could be an interesting next couple of days in South Beach.

In other Florida NBA news, Stan Van Gundy has been fired as coach of the Magic.  Let’s see a show of hands – was anyone surprised by this?

NFL Training Camps

RG III has evidently impressed the Redskins coaching staff and has looked sharp early on in practice. I love RG III!

In other news the Bucs have gotten rid of loud mouthed warrior Kellen Winslow and signed Dallas Clark. Talk about instant locker-room improvement.

Is anyone else surprised we have not heard anything about Peyton Manning in a couple of weeks?

Baseball

No excitement this year for me. The biggest news has been the lack of home runs by Albert Pujols.  The teammate gaining the most from the attention on Pujols this year is rookie Mike Trout.  The 20 year old Trout is one of the top 2 prospects in all of baseball – but between the media attention on Bryce Harper’s antics and their fascination with Pujols being unable to hit his stride, Trout has been able to sneak under the radar a bit.  This shouldn’t be the case, as Trout is batting .350 with 4 homers and 6 steals in 20 games (OPS .613).  Trout’s game is built around speed, so the early homers are an added bonus for the Halos.

Yu Darvish has been garnering a lot of the spotlight, which is normally the case with foreign phenoms.  Darvish is putting up good numbers – he is 6-2 with a 3.05 ERA and 63 strikeouts in 56 innings pitched.  Perhaps the biggest concern at this point is walks.  Darvish has issued 32 free passes – a rate of more than 5 walks per 9 innings.  He seemed to be getting this under control with walks totals of 2, 2, 4, 3, and 2 in a recent five game stretch.  Last night, however, Darvish issues a career high six walks and was sent to the showers after the fourth inning.

Lastly, Aroldis Chapman of the Reds was picked up for speeding last night. Chapman has been literally unhittable this year, posting 39 strikeouts in just 22 1/3 innings and a .196 batting average allowed. Seems like he was trying to drive as fast as his highest pitch speed (which is 105 mph) as Chapman was pulled over Monday for going a leisurely 93 mph on the interstate.

Justin Verlander had a recent no-hit attempt broken up in the ninth inning.  Had he finished with a no-no, it would have been the third of his career.  Batters are hitting just .168 against him this year.

Matt Kemp’s run at an MVP took a hit with a hamstring injury.  He says that the hammy is at 85% and he plans to return to the lineup on May 29th.  Sometimes these types of injuries can linger.  The post-season aspirations of the Dodgers hinges on whether or not Kemp can make a full recovery.

On the topic of comebacks … look no further than the south side of Chicago.  After seven straight seasons of at least 38 homers, Adam Dunn fell hard in 2011.  In his first year with the White Sox, he hit just 11 homers in 415 at bats, while hitting anemic .159.  This year, his average is at .247 (higher than his career mark) and he has 14 homers and 34 walks en route a .986 OPS.  And fans don’t have to worry about the heat this summer – Dunn’s 62 strikeouts (on pace for a record 239) has provided abundant air circulation at The Cell.

Until next time, stay classy Thief River Falls, Minnesota!
 

 

Alas ... not in my collection.

Normally I write about sports, but this week I am going to go into the world of sports cards

I have received a number of auction catalogs as the spring months are prime for sports cards and memorabilia auctions. Even Kosmo has touted our favorite REA auction on the site here more than once over the years.

Seeing all of these cards, and knowing I am building a new home has me thinking as wel … maybe it is the time to sell my collection.

My Collecting Story

I have been a card collector since I was a young kid. I remember packing those 77 and 78 Topps cards into the Stride-Rite Shoebox surrounded with rubber bands.

I got a bit older, I started mowing yards, my money to spend on cards increased. I bought sets, I bought $9 complete unopened boxes of 83 Topps and 84 Donruss. I even picked off some old cards from the 50’s and 60’s and got a collection from an older relative. I had every Carl Yastrzemski card in existence.

I went off to college … my collecting days stopped. I bought a few shiny refractors once and awhile, but mainly the cards were locked away in my parents basement.

I got older, started a career. Met a girl … decided after dating a couple of years to marry that girl … sold all of my cards and bought her engagement ring and paid for my first brand new car (a 1994 Toyota Camry) and made a down payment on our first house.

Then after a short while the appeal of collecting came back. I always loved the sport of golf. I started to collect vintage golf cards. I soaked up all of the knowledge I possibly could. I asked a LOT of questions. I researched on the internet, I bought from overseas auction houses. I talked to other dealers, collectors, read anything I could on the topic.

And after some years – I became very well versed in this area of the hobby, albeit a small area of the hobby.

Not the first time I have considered selling

I moved with my job a couple of times, had a son … decided the time was right to part with my collection.

At that time I had an agreement in place for a person to make a number of payments over a couple of years for the entire shootin’ match. Every single card I owned except one Bobby Jones card I wanted to hang onto for my son.

That deal never quite worked out … I got a partial payment and gave up the centerpiece set in my collection in return for the money that had been exchanged at that time.

The money from the deal went into the son’s college education fund.

Then … my life really changed …

I was diagnosed with Cancer, got rid of it, it came back again, got rid of it again…..and through it all collecting became more important to me again, it kept my mind off of other things, it was fun, it is what I enjoyed the best and I could be on the computer anywhere, in the hospital, at home, while going through a stem cell transplant…anywhere. It made me escape my problems and added normalcy to my life.

I continued to try and share my knowledge and I met many many many more people in person, and via email and phone than I ever would have from all over the globe.

I have enjoyed trying to educate anyone who will listen about golf cards, tried to make the hobby a better hobby and get more people involved.

And now I am considering selling it all again … what do I do?

Now I am building a new home. This is the house my wife and I plan on being in for a long time. It is our dream house.

The thoughts of selling the collection again enter my mind … I could do a LOT more with the house if I sold my entire collection. I could totally finish that walkout basement right out of the gate. I could add that gas fire pit in the backyard that I would want to have eventually anyway….and I am sure I could sock away some more money into the kids college fund.

I could always sell some stuff. Heck I have quite a few things to sell anyway. I could sell my extra’s or just some of my collection. OR … I could sell all of it and I am quite sure I would be able to find new happy homes for my cards.

Would I miss the cards that much? I could eventually replace them all again at some point in time except maybe a couple that are exceedingly rare cards, and of course I have a few cards in my collection that if I did sell them It is very likely would never get to have in my collection in that type of condition ever again … but at the end of the day … does it really matter?

I guess this is a struggle that many collectors come to grips with at some point during their collecting life-cycle. At what point is it a hobby and at what point is it a bunch of money that is sitting in an album or a drawer or a safe or on a shelf.

For now, it is a decision that I am wrestling with as well.

Until Next Time, stay classy Dalhart, Texas

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A little while ago I wrote the first of what I am sure will be a number of articles regarding the building of our house.  Since that initial announcement, we have been busy cleaning our home. It is amazing how much one accumulates at their house over a period of years. Since we have gone through pretty much every article of personal property that we own, we have been able to move most things that we are not keeping in the house – that we will need every day – to one of 4 piles.

The Garage Sale Pile

This is NOT our crap.

We held a garage sale at our home a couple of weeks back. Items that did not sell were off to my sister’s house for her garage sale. Since that time (and more cleaning) even more items are scheduled to a garage sale to be held at my parents’ house. Those in the Goodman Family call this annual event “The Mother of ALL Garage Sales” My parents are pretty much professionals when it come to the auction/garage/yard sale circuit. They enjoy it, they have a lot of nice stuff, they price it to move, and most importantly, they get a LOT of customer traffic. To date we have enjoyed the spoils of garage sales income of over $1000 from our two sales just counting our cut of the action and not the items that were sold at our sale for some of our friends who had stuff to unload to the public as well.

The I Wondered Where That Was Pile

Not a large amount of goods but these are things that once upon a time entered a black hole void in our domicile to never be seen again…until that is we are going through the entire house and opening up every storage container and bottomless closet space.

The Off to the Storage Unit Pile

Then there is the majority of items. This is the “clutter” around the house that we need to alleviate prior to putting the house on the market. We have our realtor coming to go through our house later this weekend. We are hoping that we have de-cluttered enough that she will not have many recommendations to make. Items already in storage are things that are going to stay there in storage for a while, or are things that are not currently being used (like winter coats and clothing)

The Too Good for the Storage Unit Pile

These are the items that we would not want to chance keeping in the storage unit. Things like wedding photos, some prints and collectible items, personal mementos, passports etc.

Next Up – the Garage!

We pretty much have the house cleaned, dusted, scrubbed, touched up, picked up etc., except…the final man’s domain….that being the garage. That is on the docket for the next several days, as they say…we are saving the best for last.

Looking Ahead – The Next Two Weeks

We have finalized the floor plan with our builder. I cannot say often enough how great they have been to work with. We should see the outside architectural mock up drawings in the next day or two. After that we just wait for the appraisal to come in, the development to approve our house plans through their process, and then can be breaking ground.

In that same time frame we should easily be able to list our house on the marketplace, have the realty listing up with write up and photos, and maybe even have an open house (although not this weekend as it is Mother’s Day weekend)

In my Utopian Society, I would have an open house after a week on the market and would have 4 people competing for full price offers. In reality I am hoping that we have a bunch of “lookers” at the house and find at least one family that would be interested enough in our home to purchase it.

Although I am not real excited about the possibility of having to move two times, I would much rather do that and make sure I have the house sold and avoid having two house payments. Here is hoping we have lots of people looking for a fully finished 4 bedroom,  2 ¾ bath walk-out ranch style home.