Water water everywhere...

Not long after my last post, I got a message on Facebook from Damir Haramina.  My cards had finally arrived to him in Croatia... ten weeks after I had mailed them, and with severe water damage.

Amazingly this isn't the first time I've had this happen: my mailing to Dali a few years ago came back to me looking like it had chosen to swim its way from Bosnia to the US. Fortunately I had extras on Haramina so I remailed (this time with some plastic protection around them) and received them back this past weekend. One more down for the 1990-91 set!

I've also gone back to working on the (unsigned) outdoor sets I need. I bought a bunch on SportLots, so I'm down to just needing these to finish them off...

2016-17 Aficionado
24 Marquinhos

2018 Prizm World Cup
1 Lionel Messi
5 Gonzalo Higuain
10 Paulo Dybala
13 Eden Hazard
25 Neymar Jr.
31 Marcelo
36 Casemiro
38 James Rodriguez
54 Mohamed Salah
63 Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain
74 Paul Pogba
78 Hugo Lloris
79 Kingsley Coman
89 Jonas Hector
93 Leroy Sane
96 Mesut Ozil
127 Javier Hernandez
154 Cristiano Ronaldo
155 Andre Silva
185 Aleksandar Mitrovic
197 Andres Iniesta
202 Isco
229 Luka Modric
231 Mateo Kovacic
235 Emil Forsberg
242 Breel Embolo

2018-19 Donruss
40 Leroy Sane

2018-19 Donruss Dominator
D-7 Harry Kane

2018-19 Donruss Elite Series
ES-1 Lionel Messi

2018-19 Donruss Legends Series
LS-5 Diego Maradona
LS-6 Pele

2018-19 Donruss Magicians
M-10 Otavio

2018-19 Donruss Out Of This World
OW-9 Kylian Mbappe

2018-19 Donruss Optic
11 Paulo Dybala
18 Thomas Muller
22 Mats Hummels
24 Manuel Neuer
37 Sergio Aguero
38 Gabriel Jesus
47 Saul Niguez
52 Edinson Cavani
53 Kylian Mbappe
54 Angel DiMaria
66 Christian Pulisic
81 Youri Tielemans
92 Giovani Lo Celso
105 Roberto Firmino
120 Christian Eriksen
132 Kylian Mbappe
133 Paul Pogba
139 Toni Kroos
140 Julian Draxler
154 Memphis Depay
191 Kai Havertz

Oof, yeah, so there are some big names I still need in there. Prizm Messi, Neymar, Dybala, Coman, Pogba, and Ronaldo; the Optic Mbappe pair and Havertz; OOTW Mbappe... It'll probably take some good trading or a couple hundred dollars cash to land them all.

On the positive side, I have several big doubles I could hopefully trade (multiple copies of most of the Donruss base Rated Rookies, for example, and several of the base Mbappe).

Process vs. Results

You’re not going to believe this, but the United States Postal Service completely sucks.

I mean, unless you’re a TTMer or something. Then you’d totally believe that.

I've been searching for Chico Moreira for quite some time. I knew he was in the Cleveland area, but after trying several addresses on him, I was nearly convinced that maybe he had moved or just didn't want to be bothered. I was 0/4 on him and decided to throw out one last Hail Mary to one final address on him that I had not yet tried.

And today, it finally came back. I sent five cards, and he added in a Houston Hotshots card.

And they all got mangled by the USPS.

On the plus side, 1. I now have an address that works, 2. I have
doubles on some of these, and C. The one I needed most got
damaged the least.

So, I have that going for me, which makes my teeth itch.

Positivity: I also got Alex Golovnia, Hank Henry, and Jacques Ladouceur back. So overall, I'll take it.