"If it weren't for bad luck you'd have no luck at all mate"

As you know the Budget Collector is on a SERIOUS budget lately. Can't afford much collecting at all these days, I've bought exactly four packs of Topps Series 2 and one Jumbo. Now I did pull that NICE Silk, but nothing else to blog about these days. Don't even talk to me about Allen & Ginter, I can't afford even a Hobby pack of that stuff right now.

Why is that you say?

The dread CAR REPAIRS. I was doing a favor for a friend last night, picked him up from the Airport at 9:30 at night on the tail end of a holiday weekend. Traffic was NASTY at the airport, but not so bad that we weren't out of there within 10 minutes of Gabe getting into the car.

Anyway, few minutes later we're driving down Airport blvd on the way to La Cienega and I notice a rattling sound, just a bit odd. THEN I notice the temperature gauge is all the way on H and there's steam coming out of the front of the car. I've had this happen before on another car, and I drove on it too long and cracked the head gasket. Once you do that your car is never the same. So we pulled off the street to a closed McDonalds and called AAA to get towed home. Fortunately I live next door to a service station, so I took it over there this morning. The bill is just under $500 for a new radiator, radiator hoses and thermostat.

SO, the Budget Collector is selling some stuff to hopefull recoup SOME of the costs. Here's my current eBay listings, it's all DVDs at the moment, and I doubt I have any good cards to add on, but you never know, I'll be scouring the apartment for as much stuff as I can find to turn over.

http://shop.ebay.com/wmnoe/m.html?_nkw&_armrs=1&_from&_ipg&_trksid=p4340

Buy some stuff? If you do I'll mention you on the blog and give out whatever link you want!

Sickovit! Video Posted

Remember a few weeks ago I mentioned Sickovit? The new line of clothing had a video shoot a couple of weeks ago and here's the result...



Those first three people in the video, boy they're pretty cool aren't they?

Also Selling a Digital Projector

Click here for the Craig's List posting

It's an In Focus LP 70 original cost of over $2K for just $250. I can certainly arrange shipping for a nominal price.

Buy Some Comics Please?

We're having a bit of a budget crisis in the Budget Collector's household, so I'm selling some comics on evilBay. These are some of my oldest and most valuable books and as much as it pains me to sell them, keeping the family fed and clothed is more important.

The process of putting stuff on eBay is getting more and more complicated it seems, and my browser/net connection isn't really helping me out this morning. I can't tell you how many times it took me to get Young Allies #20 up.

Young Allies #20 - My Oldest and most valuable single issue. It KILLS me to sell this, BUT I have no great affinity for the Golden Age of the Marvel Universe and whatever I make on it will be pretty much pure profit. I don't think it'll ever be more valuable than it already is, so selling now is probably the right timing.


Wolverine Mini-Series Complete - Bought this at the SDCC many, many moons ago, time to go bye bye I think.

If I come up with more, I'll do another post.

Topps Series 2 Woot!

Everyone and their brother is blogging about Topps Series 2, I guess I should join in the fun, except that as the Budget collector, I'm still waiting for packs to show up for $2 at Target! Lucky for me there was a brand new Serenity/Firefly comic book that was published last week ("Float Out" written by Patton Oswalt) and I had JUST enough cash to buy one pack at $3.95. Fortunately I chose correctly out of the box which was only half full, check out what I pulled:



OK truth time, I didn't pull THIS one, this is a picture from eBay, my scanner isn't hooked up at the moment. Mine is #18 out of 50, and according to the pack it's a 1 in 431 pull, which is pretty damn good for me lately. Unfortunately there's too many on eBay right now to make anything off of it, so I'll hold it or trade it to someone for something Angels related. Then again I have a ton of trades to send out still, so trading with me right now isn't your best bet.

Still it's my first "silk" card, and it's really nice. I just wish it wasn't a Red Sox player. At least it wasn't Kevin Youklis.

I'm SICKOVIT!

Are you sick and tired of life in general? Well, now just display that attitude on your chest, right here at sickovit.com! Check it out, this is the ground floor, the first merchandise available for the latest trend. ORDER TODAY! Don't you wish you had gotten in on Affliction, Tapout or Big Dog when they were just a nascent idea? Now you can, Right here

Here's your standard Men's T



and of course a Ladies Version



And much more is forthcoming. They'll also be doing corporate stuff as well.

FULL DISCLOSURE - I'm not involved with this company, but I will get a commission if you buy something, so tell them Will sent ya!

Rumors of my demise have been greatly inflated

I'm not dead, I'm just totally flat broke. I guess I could be blogging about how I've pulled something like 12 of those Topps Million Codes, and one of the first ones I pulled was a 1999 Derek Jeter Auto worth about a C note, but no one really cares about those. At some point when I stop buying Series 1 I'll do a big post.

In terms of other budget collecting, I've noticed that GI Joe figures from last Summer's movie have been popping up at Ross and TJ Maxx stores lately, so that's been a boon to my collection. I can't justify buying the darn things at 8 bucks a pop, but half price isn't so bad.

I could post about how I'm really lame and haven't sent out my end of the trades I made in LAST NOVEMEBER yet, but I can't even do that right now since the box of cards that I need to get to got accidentally moved into storage and we haven't paid the bill yet for this month and can't access it.

What I can post about is how to get free money.

Wait, what's that? Free money?

I recently earned myself a $1,500 cash grant from the Jewish Federation, just for being Jewish and being broke. In Judaism there's a practice called Mitzvahs, where Jews are expected to help out those less fortunate than themselves. I often find that most religions have some sort of giving back to the community, and in truth I think that's the best part of being religious, the safety net that your peers have around you is very comforting. In any case, I was told about the program where the Federation was giving out cash to needy Jews during this bad economy, and I went for it. Sure I had to provide tax records and be interviewed about my need, but that was the easy part. The hard part was actually swallowing my pride and asking for the grant in the first place.

From what I understand there's a TON of cash grants out there for people in need, a google search should provide enough listings to get started on. Be careful though, make sure you're dealing with a reputable source and do your homework. There's a lot of cons out there too, and for some reason it's always easier to prey on those who are already down.

Oh and just in case you're wondering, the grant went entirely to rent, freeing up the dough we would have spent on rent to catch up on bills and such.

But such a Mitzvah!