This package, still in its shrink wrap, is a fulfillment of a long held dream. I now have the entire 1989 Upper Deck set, high numbers and all. "Big deal!" I hear some of you say, "I have three of those." But for me, this set is where it truly began. '89 Upper Deck is what brought Topps out of its slumber, because goodness knows Donruss and Fleer were never going to do it. But Upper Deck, when it hit the market, was unlike anything ever seen before.

I liken Upper Deck to the ABA. Many of the things we take for granted - foil packs, quality card stock, glossy photographs - all popped up for the first time in '89 Upper Deck. Just as the ABA shook up the NBA and gave us the three-point line, the slam dunk contest and the swagger, Upper Deck fired a warning shot across Topps' bow. Eventually, the old guard vanquished the opponent. It just took Topps twice as long as it did the NBA to win its war. Of those '89 features, only the hologram didn't survive. Think of it as the baseball card equivalent to the red, white and blue basketball.

As much as I was mesmerised by Upper Deck in 1989 (and I guess I still am), the fact is I didn't get this set 21 years ago because, well, I was too damn cheap. I couldn't justify spending a whole dollar on a pack of cards, although I regularly spend three or four times that now. Funnily enough, I was able to luck into this box and get it for 25 bucks - cheaper than it probably cost in 1989. I'd love to say I planned it that way, but that would be a bald-faced lie.

Then there was the saga of the Griffey card. Most '89 sets are ridiculously priced because of it, still to this day. I finally have a Griffey rookie of my own (although it's still sealed in that box). I still need two more - one for my Mariners collection (most Mariners '89UD team sets are sold sans Griffey) and one for the Junior PC. If you have about ten of them, and would love to help out, just let me know!

Christmas is coming soon. I have a Christmas post all prepared and ready to go. See you then.

Okay, remember what I said about patience in my last post? Well, forget it. I am now the proud owner of a sealed 1989 Upper Deck factory set.

A few months ago, Thorzul had a series of posts about this great haul of cards he bought online for a stupid-low price. The gist of it was that if you find a seller on eBay who doesn't know what they have, then you can make it work for you. In this case, I dutifully typed in "1989 Upper Deck set" just like many times before, once again to find the usual assortment of crumb-bums ranging in price from $50 up to $150. They have THE GRIFFEY CARD in the set, you know.

Well, practicing the patience that I preach, I opted not to go for any of these deals, tantalising though they may be. Instead, I decided to look at the listings for "1989 Upper Deck box". I know that sets contain one of all the cards in a particular issue, while boxes are just full of unopened packs of cards with no guarantee of the contents therein. But just because I knew the difference, and you know the difference, doesn't mean everybody knows the difference.

Of course, there were a bunch of listings for hobby boxes, most sealed, some unsealed, all at inflated prices. But there was a listing buried pretty much smack in the middle, that expired in two days. It was for a sealed factory set. The description said a factory set. The pictures seemed to confirm it was a factory set. Yet the seller had listed the product under the "box" category. What's more, the starting bid was $25 and there were no bidders.

This was exactly what I was hoping for! The speculators and horders interested in purchasing boxes because they might get multiple Griffeys had no interest in a factory set with merely one Griffey. And the people chasing sets wouldn't think to look in the "box" category, so nobody was bidding on it. I saved the listing in my watch list. Now all I needed was for two simple things to happen:

a) Nobody else found the listing, or put a bid on it
b) I remembered to bid on it myself (don't laugh, it's happened before)

I should mention that all this happened the day before I wrote my last post, so I knew that getting this set was a distinct possibility at the time I wrote this post. Sorry for the slight deception. But at the same time, if the listing had be found by other people, and the bidding rocketed, I would have just bowed out and wait for the next opportunity. Thankfully, that never happened. Both (a) and (b) occurred, and I won the auction at the minimum bid. Now I just need to get the thing over to Australia.

Looks like I'm going to need some more patience.