Eyes on the prize: Thinking outside the box

Fuji's daily post-writing campaign has sure kept me busy, right in the middle of my preparations for Taiwan! I hope this gets wrapped up by Sunday, or I might have trouble keeping up next week!

Today, he asks:

What are your three most prized possessions in your collection?

I accidentally read Night Owl's perspective on this an hour ago (I try not to read others' responses until I write my own) and I like where he went with this. If I could only take three items from my collection with me, what would they be?

 As always, I've let the question flip through my head a few times over the course of the past twelve hours or so. Money isn't always a factor. Rarity? Sentimental value? Difficulty in obtaining? Do I choose favorite cards that I could theoretically replace, or items that have a connection to a specific event?

It's a tough decision, but in the end, cardboard is just cardboard. There are cards in my collection that mean a lot to me, but (other than the 1/1s) every card I own could be found again on the market, somewhere. So I thought outside the (baseball card) box and came up with the following list.

First, I grab my Ben Folds autographed ticket stub, photo pass, and CD display that I put together from concerts I attended a few years ago. The three concert stubs framed in that display represent my devotion to one of my favorite musical artists, and the autograph signifies our meeting, a point in my life I will never forget.

Then, I grab my tickets. Again, these are sentimental and irreplaceable. They are my written record and memory of all the concerts, baseball games, and shows I've been to in my life. (FYI, no, there are no movie ticket stubs in there.)

Finally, and most importantly, I grab my portable computer hard drive. I do my best to keep backups of everything - all my photos from travel and events, all my scans of many of the cards in my collection, videos and stories and three decades of music - in a secure, offsite location. But I'd rather grab the original, most up-to-date copy. And while a hard drive isn't a "collectible" in and of itself, it has equally-important "digital" collections (of the music, movies, stories, and photos I've found, bought, accumulated, and taken over the years).

Are you disappointed? Were you expecting to see me swoon over an autograph or relic? Or my first cards? Sorry, I think outside the card box!