The Birthday Cards and Necessary Adventures

So, it was my birthday yesterday. A cool 35 is what I'm rockin'. It was fun.

It began the day before, with a surprise birthday party at a local WhirlyBall facility. If you haven't been bruised by the wicked fun that is WhirlyBall before, and if you know not of what I speak, check this out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Z1vHI27EbM

You saw it right. Bumpercars and weapons. Trust me, the video barely does it justice. Those with an imagination, and an understanding of inertia, should realize the devilry of the game. Get 10 friends, get them now.

So, that was awesome. Then the next day, after I got off of a short day at work, we went to Dave and Busters. A sweet cocktail serving arcade, with giant games. And more related to this baseball card blog, D&B's was a sweet cocktail serving arcade that had redemption games. Sweet ticket giving machines.

Skee-ball would be the stalwart classic. That 3.6 difficulty of a 50 point hole, and the almost never seen 100 point ball, gives the sweet raffle booty. It's like I entered to win the door prize 3047 times. That's right, that's how many tickets we earned. (You would think that would take a long time to count such a haul, but no . . . they weigh them. Ingenious indoor carnival devilry)

I have tendinitis from skee-ball.

On to the redemptions. And my sweet birthday cards. They came in packs like this.

For 1350 hard fought tickets I could own this. Good thing my wife and brother figured out which games had the sweet payouts. And truth-be-told, all one had to do was watch where the 12-14 year old set was gaming. Those kids had it figured out! Ticket's galore!!

Intrepidly we three built our dragons hoard. All the way to where we could afford two of these beauties.

Here's the other side.

The sweet part is my main man Ozzie made the case. I long for that sweet rookie card. Only Padres card I can think of that I want. One day . . . one day.

Now the first of the shenanigans is apparent.

 (I didn't realize it until examining the packs for this post, just to keep things temporally accurate).

Look in the center of the white rectangle, just to the left and above the D&B logo, and just right and above the bar code. See that innocuous black line.

Redaction! The case has been redacted. This could involve national security issues. That is what I typically associate with blacked out redaction's. Television has taught me so. My baseball cards have been redacted. What was worth 1350 tickets that needed to be made secret, to never see the light? After looking at it closely in my kitchen I can just make out the numbers 1199?

Dawning realization.
Inflation or scoundrel behaviour.
Could this be its true cost in tickets?

We will never know, and these beauties will always be worth 1350 tickets to me.

Then the kidney punch. This came along each card in a pack.

The expiration date. Really?!? You raised the ticket price on my purchased treasure. You raised it and gave me expired goods. Seems like eggs past their due date.

It could all turn around if the cards were sweet. Something with a vintage. Something from a decade I don't have.

Nope. Two cards of some stand out hall of famer's, but still. Two cards from the glut of early 90's production. Fleer?

Although, I have to admit. I have just started collecting so I don't care they're from the "trash" era. I like the design of the fleer with the cubbie blue. And Boggs, he's sweet.

I know, I know. Early 90's smut. My first grade 10's though. Grade 10 smut.

Birthdays are fun. This one was awesome! The cards are in plastic.