I guess I should be happy that Baseball card collecting got any publicity at all. Still, when a collector gets typecast on a popular national television show as an socially inept geek it does make me cringe.
I dunno. Maybe I'm just sick of that tired old trope... You know what I mean?
Can't we just get past the idea that card collecting is the domain of pimple-faced dorks?
Some of us, I'll have you know, are quite well-adjusted. Heck, many of us have jobs, even. And some of us have good enough jobs that they can steal a bunch of pharmaceutical drugs from our employer to sell on the black market - just like Pryce in the recent episodes of "Better Call Saul."
For those who don't know the reference, Baseball card collecting was featured, front and center, during the past two recent episodes of the popular AMC show. Pryce, who you can see in the screen grab below, had been illicitly selling drugs to a local dealer, and stupidly allowed said dealer to know more about him then he should have. Soon, his home got ransacked, and along with his money his "Major Collection" of Baseball cards was stolen.
Below is the state of his living room as the police came in to investigate.
Frankly, I didn't mind so much that this character was such a dweeb. After all, he had to be in order to show what a naive moron he is. What did irk me was how he described his collection and what it eventually looked like when we saw it.
Pryce provided really good details. The kind of detail that showed that the writers understood the subject matter.
The robbery victim explains that he lost a Topps Mickey Mantle rookie card; which we all know is the 1952 Topps #311 card that often sells in the thousands. Heck, Pryce even says it's in mint condition - explaining its 60/40 on the front and 90/10 on the reverse (this has to do with centering for those who don't know). So, this card alone could be six figures in value.
Clearly, this is the kind of collection that a collector like myself would be proud of. In fact, it's reasonable to believe that 100% of collectors out there would be sure to protect them behind some sort of plastic case, and if you listened carefully that's exactly what he said he kept them in. Pryce said he kept them all in "top-loaders."
So, when we do actually get to see his collection guess what they show us?
Yeah, that's right.
They showed us several 2500 count boxes of modern day commons.
WTF!
Come on, now.
They just threw me for a loop. For the remainder of the show, all I could think of was how bogus that scene was. I just couldn't get over the fact that those card are clearly not what was described. Heck, where are the top-loaders?
Ugh!
And then I realized... Ya know, I am kind of a dork. Without the pimples. Dorky, nerdy and proud! I guess I am now one step closer to embracing my true self.
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I been watching this show since it started and enjoy it. Especially since its a prequal to Breaking Bad in a way. When I first saw this episode I actually thought it was cool that he was talking about baseball cards. And when he mentioned which cards and the condition I was like cool. This all happened on 1 episode. By the 2nd episode, when the cards are returned, and I saw the state of how it was returned and him checking just a common box of looking cards I quickly dismissed it and didn't pay no-mind to it. Partly so I would get annoyed about it. I had high hopes they show the pristine cards but when I saw the box I was over it and enjoy the rest of the episode. Besides, that guy was annoying.
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