Holy Moly

I conned my mom! Here is just a little background for this story.

My parents were divorced when I was 5 or 6 years old. My mother gained custody of me and we were on our own. My mother had boyfriends here and there, but nobody treated her the way she deserved. Plus I probably chased off a few of them! My mom worked as a waitress for most of my childhood years. She would also work other jobs on the side as well to provide for us. My dad didn't pay child support for the longest time as well. Nonetheless I was a spoiled brat. This last Christmas I mentioned in a card to my mom how much I miss spending Christmas morning with her. She always found a way to purchase what I wanted every Christmas. I also mentioned this in her card. I think I told her that I feel sorry now for asking for such expensive gifts all of the time. Reflecting back and seeing how much my life is blessed, I am now grateful for any gift I receive for Christmas. I might ask for a bowling ball here or some cologne I like there, but usually I only tell everyone to get me socks. I keep my expensive gift ideas to myself in hopes that I can buy them later myself with poker winnings.

I guess for some reason my mom has felt sub par in her gift giving to me? She probably feels this way because of all the expensive crap that she had to buy me in the past! After growing up and realizing how spoiled I was I don't want her to spend anything on me now. Plus right now and for the past 5 years or so we have lived in her house basically rent free. So, for the past three or four years I have only asked my mom for socks for Christmas and my birthday.

My birthday was the other day and a couple of weeks ago she called and asked me what I wanted. I of course told her socks. She had also said that she had already gotten me something.

When we visited her in the beginning of November I found a basketball card in Seattle that I wanted. I hadn't been able to find the card here where we live, so I remember there being a card shop right next to her work in Seattle. We stopped there on our last day right before going to the airport. Sure enough they had this rookie card that I wanted. I didn't get a chance to purchase the card for myself because I had a personal issue to attend to. Actually it was an attack of the number 2 alright. I had to rush out of the shop and race next door to where my mom works and use the restroom. For some unknown reason I told my mom if she wanted to she could get me this card. It is a Deron Williams rookie card. Deron is the point guard for the Utah Jazz and he is amazing. I like to collect cards, not overly obsessive about it, but I like to have certain rookies that I know will increase with value over time. I told her that the card was like around $20, but if they had like a $5 one to just get that one instead. There are a ton of different kinds of cards out there now days and you can find the same person's rookie card as low as maybe $5 all the way up to $1,000. I was just hoping that they still had this card that I saw or maybe any other rookie card around the same price or cheaper.

She called a few days before my birthday and informed me that she stopped by the card shop, but they didn't have the card. I didn't doubt her because everyone has to be catching on about how good Deron Williams is going to be. She called the day before my birthday and asked if I had received my gift yet. I informed her that it hadn't yet arrived. She was told by the person at the post office that it should arrive the day before or the day after my birthday. She called me on my birthday and asked again if it arrived. It hadn't arrived on that day either, she wasn't too pleased! It did arrive the day after my birthday and I thought of calling her as I opened it. I figured I would open it and hope that she was just joshing me about the card shop not having the card. The package in the mail was light in weight and was too small to be socks, so I was extra syked that it might be my rookie card.

I opened the padded envelope and inside was another little envelope securely wrapped in tape. I was for sure that it was his rookie card.

I opened it slowly and peered into the envelope and saw a card in a thick case. I was expecting to see a normal rookie card worth somewhere between $10 to $20!

When I was a teenager my mom had gotten me a Barry Sanders rookie card for Christmas. One of the expensive gifts that I had hinted at probably a million times that year! She of course bought it for her spoiled brat. I think that she spent around $50 or $60 for it! I remember her not being too fond of spending that much money on a card. I was extremely timid about asking her for another sports card, but felt safe since it wasn't as expensive as that last card she bought me many years ago. I have treasured that card for many years now. It is my favorite card, or at least was my favorite card!

I pull this card out of the envelope and see that she spent way more than $20! I look at this card and see that it is not only a rookie card, but an autographed patch rookie card! Autographed is easy to figure out, it is obviously a rookie card that Deron Williams himself signed. For those of you out there that don't know what a patch card is I will explain. Sports cards have come a long way in increasing the value of trading cards. There are hologram cards, better quality made cards, numbered cards (in which there are only a certain amount of certain cards made) autographed cards and patch cards. Patch cards are about 4 t0 6 times thinker than a regular card. They are always numbered, and have a piece of clothing (probably the jersey that was worn by that person during an actual game or photo shoot) placed in a tiny framed area within the trading card itself. A rookie card is worth more than a card that is made of that same player in the following years . Thus, this rookie card that she got me is worth a lot simply because it is his rookie card. It being a patch card along with it being his rookie card probably triples or quadruples the value of the card. Now with the card being autographed on top of that it probably doubles or triples the value on top of that as well! I don't know how much she spent on the card, but I can look up the value (which I will do mom)! She didn't pay the guy full price for the card and she was a bit proud of that. I guess he looked up the value and told her how much it was. She asked him if that was his final answer, which he must have responded with a lower number, but she also talked him down just a tad more than that as well.

Like I mentioned it is now my favorite card, and I love it. But I think I will just tell my mom to only buy me socks from here on until the end of time! I love you mom so much and not just because you have always gotten me everything I have wanted. I love you because of who your are, because you are a great example to me. I have grown to learn that giving is a lot better than receiving. I have grown and learned to be grateful for everything that I have. I am most grateful that you are still here and are just about finished with this stupid cancer!