Not-So-Secret Santa 2023: SIGN UP NOW!

Last year, I held my first ever Not-So-Secret Santa program here on the blog.  By all accounts, it was a success so I'm returning the program for 2023!  The main goal of the Not-So-Secret Santa is to spread holiday cheer throughout the blogs once again - and have a lot of fun while doing so.

Welcome to the sign-ups for Not-So-Secret Santa 2023!

The basics of the program are the same as last year but here's a quick reminder:

I'll be the one sending everyone gifts and then, in return, each person who I send to can send me something in return.  I thought this might be fun because I wouldn't necessarily be looking for baseball cards in return (don't get me wrong, I'd love anything off of my want list but I also recognize that my want list is full of way too many inserts and short prints - the bane of a set collector)!

My hope is to create custom gift packages for each person who joins in the Not-So-Secret Santa.  I'm going to try and tailor each box to the individual (uses the information you provide on the sign-up form - see below).  I've got a few goodies stashed away already for certain long-time bloggers (so hopefully they'll sign up) but I've got a lot of ideas to make this fun for everyone.

Here's how this will work:

Step 1:  Sign-up using this short Google forms page.  I'll need your mailing address (US mailing addresses only for now, sorry but shipping costs outside the US are out of hand).  The form also gives you a place to link to your want list and a place to type in any additional interests.  Sign-ups should be completed no later than November 10 to give me enough time to get gift boxes in the mail prior to Christmas!

Step 2:  Wait for your Not-So-Secret Santa gift to arrive from me. I hope to mail out most gifts by the end of November or early December.  Your gift should contain baseball cards plus the potential of other things depending on your responses on the sign-up form.

Step 3:  Prepare a gift for me and mail it to me!  You can base what you send back to me on what I sent you.  I don't expect to send the same exact "value" to each person - in large part because of the limitations of my own collection but also some people will have much a much wider range of interests as compared to somebody else!  I also am not worrying about someone trying to return "equal value" to me.  This is, after all, a holiday gift exchange and it's meant to be fun, not stressful!  

While I am happy to have any of the cards on my want list listed on my TCDB profile, I'd also be interested in the following items:

• Local favorite foods from where you live (I especially like salty snacks much more than sweets).  I also enjoy cooking so anything local that might fit under that category would be great.
• Anything LEGO.  I can use and enjoy all things LEGO.  New sets, loose pieces, sets from your childhood you no longer want, doesn't really matter to me.  Only LEGO brand though because I make own custom LEGO City table with my son and we are trying to keep everything official LEGO so as to make sure everything will line up correctly as we build everything!
• Disc golf discs (especially any discs from Dynamic Discs or Westside Discs)
• Board games (see my Boardgamegeek profile).  This includes card games as well.  Games on my "want in trade list" are of particular interest!
• Particularly good books you have read and enjoyed.  You can find my Goodreads profile here to get a feel for the kind of books I like.
• Unopened baseball card packs, any year, any brand.  I use unopened packs for my group breaks but also as fun little rewards/prizes for my son.

Things I'm not interested in receiving as part of the Not-So-Secret Santa:

• Random Reds cards (or random cards in general).  Space is an issue for my collection right now so I'm trying to basically only collect specific sets (plus Barry Larkin cards).
• Bobbleheads or other plastic figurines.  Same reasoning as above, display space is at a premium for me.

The fine print:

I reserve the right to close sign-ups early if the number of interested people exceeds my time/budget/capabilities to mail before Christmas.  If necessary, preference will go to those who signed up earlier as well as those with whom I've dealt with in the past (either via trades, email messages, or long time blog readers/commenters).  Signing up via the form does not guarantee a gift, spaces are limited as is what I can potentially send to someone.  If I can't make assemble a reasonable gift worth sending based on someone's preferences and the cost of postage, then I'll have to exclude that person from the gift exchange.